The potential role played by artificial adaptive systems in enhancing our understanding of Alzheimer disease: The experience gained within Italian Interdisciplinary network on Alzheimer disease

The author describes a refiguration of medical thought which originate from non linear dynamics and chaos theory. The coupling of computer science and these new theoretical bases allows the creation of “intelligent” agents (Artificial Adaptive Systems AAS) able to adapt themselves dynamically to problem of high complexity like Alzheimer Disease. ASS are able to reproduce the dynamical interactio of multiple factors simultaneously, allowing the study of complexity; they can also draw conclusions on individual basis and not as average trends. In the last years of co-operation between ITINAD, Bracco Medical Department and Semeion Research Centre different kinds of experiments have been performed with ANNs in Alzheimer Disease context. The specific application of ANN in most cases is original, and has followed two principal aims: –prediction of outcome or diagnosis in individual patients; –data mining of complex data sets. Several examples of applications will be described.