Research from the University of Delaware suggests a more detailed way to measure brain health.
Researchers say measuring the stiffness of your brain can provide important clues to its overall health. Generally speaking, brains with more and better-connected cells are stiffer.
But measuring that can be a challenge. In a project conceived by one of his students, Curtis Johnson, associate professor of biomedical engineering, says his lab utilized magnetic resonance elastography - aided by the introduction of AI - to measure brain stiffness in a non-invasive way. While Johnson has worked with the MRE technology for years, the AI component proved to be a major step forward.
“It can identify those subtle features that we didn't know we were even looking for," Johnson says.
MRI imaging, interpreted by AI, gives insight into the stiffness of the brain, in turn providing clues about its health and relative age. That can lead to new insights into conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s.
“Just simply a natural age-related degenerative process leads to this change in breakdown," Johnson says. "Like any other biological material - fruit, for instance has a very similar process where you have a stiffness and then as it ages it, it degrades and becomes softer.”
The project also called on students and faculty from the electrical and computer engineering department.
