Credit score: Lars Smolders
Sufferers with a glioma, a sort of malignant mind tumor, can undergo from cognitive issues after surgical procedure. Nonetheless, the true impact of surgical procedure on complicated cognitive duties just isn’t identified. To foretell the consequences of surgical procedure on cognitive duties, Ph.D. researcher Lars Smolders developed an AI mannequin that makes use of details about neural connections within the mind extracted from the affected person’s MRI photos earlier than surgical procedure.
The elimination of a malignant mind tumor or glioma can prolong a affected person’s life by a few years relying on the kind of glioma. Nonetheless, it could additionally mark the beginning of one other troublesome well being journey.
“Many patients suffer from cognitive problems, such as trouble with concentration and performing complex tasks, after their brain tumor has been removed,” says Smolders, a researcher within the Division of Arithmetic and Laptop Science who defended his Ph.D. thesis on January 7.
“These issues lead to major problems in the daily lives of treated patients, severely reducing their quality of life,” Smolders notes.
“While neurological problems such as partial paralysis and loss of vision are well understood, the effect of surgery on more complex cognitive functions is not well known, and it is difficult to predict beforehand how individual patients are affected by surgery.”
AI mannequin
To assist predict how a affected person with a malignant mind tumor performs cognitive duties after surgical procedure, Smolders and his collaborators developed an AI mannequin.
The mind relies upon critically on neurons forming long-distance bundles of so-called white matter that bodily interconnect areas of the mind.
“As input data for the model, we isolated key structural details from large so-called white-matter connections in the brain that are visible in MRI images of the brain taken before surgery,” says Smolders. “We used these to examine how resistant each patient’s brain is to damage caused by treatment to remove or eliminate the tumor.”
Beforehand, predicting cognitive outcomes after remedy was virtually unimaginable, though these outcomes are essential for a affected person’s every day life.
The knowledge produced by Smolders’ mannequin might be utilized by surgeons sooner or later to evaluate a affected person’s suitability for surgical procedure, doubtlessly sparing weak sufferers from irreversible neurological disabilities. Nonetheless, the method must be clinically validated on a big affected person group first.
The street to the AI mannequin was an attention-grabbing one to say the least, as Smolders highlights. “The location of brain damage is often used to predict the type of neurological problems patients will suffer from, but we found that the location of a brain tumor barely helps with predicting these problems in patients.”
Consequently, the researcher needed to develop new strategies. “This made me realize that the function of the brain is even more complicated than I first thought, and that a lot of work would be required to achieve the desired goal of reliably predicting outcomes after surgery for individual patients.”
Finally, Smolders managed to develop a predictive mannequin that moderately predicts whether or not a affected person will undergo from cognitive issues after remedy. “This model is based on properties of white matter connections in patient’s brains before surgery. To me, it is fascinating that we can develop a measure of a brain’s vulnerability to damage (inflicted by surgery and/or chemo- and radiotherapy) based only on MRI images.”
Outdated strategies do not work
Throughout his Ph.D. analysis, Smolders adopted a path that mixed arithmetic, algorithms, neuroscience, and AI. Nonetheless, on the very begin of the undertaking, he and his collaborators famous one thing puzzling and worrying.
“At the start of the research, we applied several established methods from the network neuroscience literature to study patients with a brain tumor to predict what might cause cognitive problems in these patients. But for the patient group in this study, these methods just didn’t work.”
For instance, many established algorithms explored by Smolders to review MRI photos of the mind fail when analyzing brains with massive deformations, which regularly happen within the presence of tumors.
“We also found that existing literature dedicated to studying healthy brains drew faulty conclusions about the link between the structure and function of the brain. So, we wrote a commentary paper on this subject to debunk some of the faulty conclusions made by researchers in the past,” says Smolders.
On condition that Smolders has been touring on a trajectory in technical matters for a lot of his profession, you’ll assume that he has an implicit affinity with these matters. Properly, throughout his Ph.D. exploits, Smolders discovered one thing new about himself.
“I discovered that I like doing science more than I expected. In the mathematics and computer science master’s at TU/e, you are educated more like an engineer than a scientist. By collaborating with neuropsychologists and neurosurgeons for my Ph.D., I learned more about conducting fundamental scientific research and greatly enjoyed combining my skills to develop new mathematical methods with neuroscientific research.”
As well as, Smolders’ view of the mind modified over the course of his undertaking. “The brain is a complex system that produces complex behavior, which should eventually be explainable through mathematical models. During the project I found that there is a lot left to learn about the structure and functioning of the brain, and brain tumor patients give us a unique lens through which to view the brain.”
Sooner or later, Smolders and his colleagues want to combine the exercise of the person affected person mind into their predictive mannequin to enhance mannequin accuracy.
A extra correct mannequin might considerably scale back the dangers of neurological impairments after surgical procedure and enhance the lives of mind tumor sufferers after remedy.
Smolders hopes to hold out this work as a postdoctoral researcher, and he is co-written a proposal as he seeks funding for the place.
“If the funding application is successful, it would continue the existing collaboration between TU/e and the neurosurgery department of the Elisabeth-Tweesteden hospital in Tilburg, from which we have learned a lot and which I expect will lead to meaningful breakthroughs for the future of health care. And I want to be there for those breakthroughs too.”
Extra data:
Thesis: Mind connectivity and cognition in glioma sufferers
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Eindhoven College of Expertise
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Utilizing AI to foretell the after-effects of mind tumor surgical procedure (2025, January 24)
retrieved 25 January 2025
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