Some thoughts on brain imaging
Can Brain Scans See Depression? – New York Times
At first glance, this doesn’t seem like anything new (imaging-wise) to neuroscientists, but there are some interesting opinions in the article.
Interesting fact:
In a range of studies, researchers have found that people with schizophrenia suffer a progressive loss of their brain cells: a 20-year-old who develops the disorder, for example, might lose 5 percent to 10 percent of overall brain volume over the next decade, studies suggest.
And I like the way this guy thinks:
In an interview, Dr. Amen said that it was unconscionable that the profession of psychiatry was not making more use of brain scans. “Here we are, giving five or six different medications to children without even looking at the organ we’re changing,” he said.
But is this true?
“The thing for people to understand is that right now, the only thing imaging can tell you is whether you have a brain tumor,” or some other neurological damage, said Paul Root Wolpe, a professor of psychiatry and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics.
Does anyone know of any good work applying machine learning to doing discrimination of neural disease (like ADD, general depression, and anything that’s basically not a giant lesion/tumor) in imaging scans?