Artificial Intelligence to assist in healthy mental practices in digitalized communities

Contexte

 The topic is within the scope of the “Well-being and health” EUniWell research theme 

Objectifs visés

1. Brief presentation of the research lines and interests of each partner.

2. Discussion and selection of the most EU-socially relevant research areas related to the topic.

3. Generation of joint research strategies to address each of the selected themes by the consortium (e.g., cooperative research projects, staff and student exchanges, etc.). 

Démarche mise en œuvre

 On line workshop (to be held in January or February) 

Ressources mobilisées

This workshop has been proposed by Rodrigo Martínez-Béjar (Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence) and M. Trinidad Herrero-Ezquerro (Professor of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology), University of Murcia, Spain

Bilan et perspectives

European population is ageing rapidly. As a consequence, social relevance of neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive decline (associated to social ageing) is gaining momentum. Dementia may be described as a degenerative brain pathology resulting in a syndrome of impaired behaviour, function, memory and thinking. Alzheimer’s disease is the most frequent cause of dementia. The pathology corresponding to this disease may progress undetected for decades before cognitive symptoms take place. Early changes of medical risk factors and lifestyle might prevent an important proportion of dementia cases. 

Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have shown their potential to deal with dementia problems, since these technologies provide accessible and efficient methods to learn from patterns, reason or to analyse texts automatically, for instance, to help in several dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease. Meanwhile, it has become apparent that the AI application to handle the burden of dementia is cost-effective and efficient, while it has been put forward that AI-enabled technology will facilitate safer and faster dementia preventive care and enhanced sustainability. The necessity of multidisciplinary teams to address dementia prevention issues currently seems unquestionable. Furthermore, better interdisciplinary collaborations by computer science and clinicians among other types of specialists for validation of protocols are necessary. The proponents have long experience and expertise in joint research efforts to deal with the AI application in healthcare, neurodegenerative diseases and ageing.