A Dialectical Method to Classify Alzheimer\'s Magnetic Resonance Images

Abstract

It is largely known that a great amount of current methods of analysis in image analysis and processing is based on parametric statistics. Alternatively, several approaches in Computational Intelligence, and particularly in Evolutionary Computation, are inspired by biology and other social-based sciences, like the ones based on the movement of flocks and birds, particularly particle swarm optimization, that tend to approximate this basic social behaviour present in inferior animals to the searching process to find a global optimum in a determined objective functions. However, it notorious that just a few approaches, to be optimistic, and almost none to be realistic, are inspired in Philosophy. Herein this work we claim that Philosophy can be also considered as a source of inspiration to build new tools for analysis in Computational Intelligence, in particular, and in image processing and analysis, in general. This chapter presents the Objective Dialectical Method (ODM): an evolutionary method for classification based on the Philosophy of Praxis, a philosophical approach that considers parts of reality as complex systems composed by basic units called poles, where such units are involved in conflict, affecting each other and generating more poles or eliminating others, as this dynamics proceeds. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, both in senile and presenile individuals, observing the gradual progress of the disease as the individual becomes older (Ewers et al., 2006). The major manifestation of Alzheimer's disease is the diminution of the cognitive functions with gradual loss of memory, including psychological, neurological and behavioral symptoms indicating the decline of the daily life activities as a whole. Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the reduction of gray matter and the growth of cerebral sulci. However, the white matter is also affected, although the relation between Alzheimer's disease and white matter is still unknown (Friman et al., 2006). Acquisition of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance images (DW-MR images) turns possible the visualization of the dilation of the lateral ventriculi temporal corni, enhancing the augment of sulci, related to the advance of Alzheimer's disease (Haacke et al., 1999). Therefore, volumetrical measuring of cerebral structures is very important for diagnosis and O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w .in te ch w eb .o rg