In this paper, we present the novel Deep-MEG approach in which image-based representations of magnetoencephalography (MEG) data are combined with ensemble classifiers based on deep convolutional neural networks. For the scope of predicting the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), functional connectivity (FC) measures between the brain bio-magnetic signals originated from spatially separated brain regions are used as MEG data representations for the analysis. After stacking the FC indicators relative to different frequency bands into multiple images, a deep transfer learning model is used to extract different sets of deep features and to derive improved classification ensembles. The proposed Deep-MEG architectures were tested on a set of resting-state MEG recordings and their corresponding magnetic resonance imaging scans, from a longitudinal study involving 87 subjects. Accuracy values of 89% and 87% were obtained, respectively, for the early prediction of AD conversion in a sample of 54 mild cognitive impairment subjects and in a sample of 87 subjects, including 33 healthy controls. These results indicate that the proposed Deep-MEG approach is a powerful tool for detecting early alterations in the spectral–temporal connectivity profiles and in their spatial relationships.
1 November 2015 in Computers in Biology and Medicine
We hypothesize that quantification of structural similarity or dissimilarity between paired mammographic regions can be effective in detecting asymmetric signs of breast cancer. Bilateral masking procedures are applied for this purpose by using automatically detected anatomical landmarks. Changes in structural information of the extracted regions are investigated using spherical semivariogram descriptors and correlation-based structural similarity indices in the spatial and complex wavelet domains. The spatial distribution of grayscale values as well as of the magnitude and phase responses of multidirectional Gabor filters are used to represent the structure of mammographic density and of the directional components of breast tissue patterns, respectively. A total of 188 mammograms from the DDSM and mini-MIAS databases, consisting of 47 asymmetric cases and 47 normal cases, were analyzed. For the combined dataset of mammograms, areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.83, 0.77, and 0.87 were obtained, respectively, with linear discriminant analysis, the Bayesian classifier, and an artificial neural network with radial basis functions, using the features selected by stepwise logistic regression and leave-one-patient-out cross-validation. Two-view analysis provided accuracy up to 0.94, with sensitivity and specificity of 1 and 0.88, respectively.