Health
IBM uses AI to determine how quickly Huntington’s Disease symptoms appear
The onset of symptoms just got less mysterious.
Teaming up with the CHDI Foundation, IBM leveraged its AI to determine the rate of cognitive and motor function decline for those with Huntington’s Disease. The AI focuses on the rarely discussed white matter of an MRI scan to distinguish “fast- from slow-changing participants.” The results can help people with Huntington’s Disease plan for their future quality of life and can also allow for better placement in clinical trials.
Game changer — The AI maps patterns of brain signals in a resting state which creates a stable neurological signature. These patterns indicate how quickly symptoms will appear and that could be extrapolated from a single MRI scan.
Huntington’s Disease sprouts from a gene mutation, but symptoms might appear in your 20s to later on in your 60s. The symptoms might ease in or they could rapidly overwhelm an individual. This research would allow for clinical trial placement based on the rate of cognitive decline or to allow for treatment trials for those with a slower symptom onset.
This news could move research forward, but as AI gets more involved with healthcare, the consequences of it being wrong skyrocket. Even Google recognized the weight of its breast-cancer-spotting AI and practically begged for regulation.
