The National Yang Ming Chiao Tong University (NYCU) and the Taipei Veterans General Hospital hailed a new milestone for disease diagnosis in the medical industry with a brain imaging system they jointly developed that could isolate levels of cerebral regression suffered by patients with mental diseases at different stages of their lives.
The system, named Brain Probe, won this year’s Edison Awards’ Gold award in the Advancements in Neurological Treatments subcategory.
NYCU’s School of Medicine dean Albert Yang (楊智傑) said that neuropsychiatric diagnoses have long relied on doctor-patient interaction and reference patients’ known family medical history.
Photo courtesy of the National Yang Ming Chiao Tong University
The system allows doctors to precisely quantify the regression rates that different cerebral regions experience due to aging or as a cause of a disorder, he said on Friday.
While initially developed with identifying schizophrenia in mind, the platform could potentially be extended to diagnose major neuropsychiatric diseases.
The team based its solution on long-term observation data of brain aging and disease-related brain regression, and determined the regression model for the gray and white matter areas in 138 brain regions, Yang said.
The model would allow doctors to predict regression trends based on the patient’s age or the stage of their illness, isolate critically abnormal regions and prescribe more targeted treatments, he said.
This development is a far cry from previous technology, which was unable to provide doctors with a distinct causal relation between imagery and symptoms, he said.
The system is already being used for research and clinical assessments of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, Yang said.
Research data generated by the system show that schizophrenic patients experience a significant shrinkage of the general brain size in the 22 years after they are first diagnosed with schizophrenia, while exhibiting greater cortical thickness in the early stages, he said.
Schizophrenic patients have also been shown to see a significant regression in gray matter in the temporal and frontal lobes, as well as the insula, he said.
The system’s data also show that bipolar and depressive patients exhibit anomalies in the anterior cingulate cortex, he said.
Such information is beneficial to doctors, who would be able to more precisely target areas for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation or deep brain stimulation therapies, Yang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS