Artificial brain could diagnose schizophrenia
A controversial computer test for schizophrenia has been astonishingly accurate in early trials. Its inventors say the test, which is based on a learning system called a neural network, could even diagnose the condition before subjects show any symptoms.
A study published in the journal Biological Cybernetics and reported in New Scientist shows early trials of the program have been 100 per cent accurate. If further trials are as successful, it could allow treatment of the disease in its very earliest stages.
But some researchers are sceptical whether brain imaging can provide all the answers. "Nobody has ever found a specific brain abnormality that all schizophrenics have that nobody else has," warns Robin Murray of the Institute of Psychiatry in London.
The system was developed by Peter Liddle, a psychiatrist specialising in brain imaging at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. It uses a neural network to analyse the brain scans of patients, looking for telltale characteristics in cerebral blood flow.
"One of the big challenges with schizophrenia is the diagnosis," Dr Liddle said. "It can take several years for it to be made clear. Being able to make a reliable diagnosis early can help to optimise the outcome."
Dr Liddle's system relies on recent brain activity studies which suggest that certain parts of the brain are disrupted in people with schizophrenia.
His neural network was trained using positron emission tomography scans from schizophrenia patients and healthy subjects and examines blood flow in the temporal and parietal lobes for the idiosyncrasies of schizophrenia. Tests show the system was able to identify people with and without schizophrenia with 100 per cent accuracy.
Neuroscientist Professor Richard Silberstein, director of the Brain Science Institute at Swinburne University in Melbourne, said cerebral blood flow is currently rarely used to diagnose schizophrenia.
He said there are at least three subtypes of schizophrenia which make it a difficult condition to diagnose and treat correctly.
"If Dr Liddle has been able to find a correlation between the different types [of blood flow in the different kinds of schizophrenia], it would be more useful than the current diagnostic methods," Professor Silberstein said.
Ms Barbara Hocking, executive director of SANE Australia (a charity representing people with schizophrenia and mental illness), said it was encouraging to see such work being carried out and, if it had potential to help, that was good news.
But she warned it would be unwise to expect that an experimental test such as this will be widely available in the short term.