Voxel-based diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease using classifier ensembles

Abstract—Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the most promising non-invasive techniques for early Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis. In this paper, we explore the application of different machine learning techniques to the classification of fMRI data for this purpose. The functional images were firstly preprocessed using the statistical parametric mapping toolbox to output individual maps of statistically activated voxels. A fast filter was applied afterwards to select voxels commonly activated across demented and non-demented groups. Four feature ranking selection techniques were embedded into a wrapper scheme using an inner-outer loop for the selection of relevant voxels. The wrapper approach was guided by the performance of six pattern recognition models, three of which were ensemble classifiers based on stochastic searches. Final classification performance was assessed from the nested internal and external cross-validation loops taking several voxel sets ordered by importance. Numerical performance was evaluated using statistical tests, and the best combination of voxel selection and classification reached a 97.14% average accuracy. Results repeatedly pointed out Brodmann regions with distinct activation patterns between demented and non demented profiles, indicating that the machine learning analysis described is a powerful method to detect differences in several brain regions between both groups.