Artificial intelligence applications in psychoradiology

Abstract

One important challenge in psychiatric research is to translate findings from brain imaging research studies that identified brain alterations in patient groups into an accurate diagnosis at an early stage of illness, prediction of prognosis before treatment, and guidance for selection of effective treatments that target patient-relevant pathophysiological features. This is the primary aim of the field of Psychoradiology. Using databases collected from large samples at multiple centers, sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms may be used to develop clinically useful image analysis pipelines that can help physicians diagnose, predict, and make treatment decisions. In this review, we selectively summarize psychoradiological research using magnetic resonance imaging of the brain to explore the neural mechanism of psychiatric disorders, and outline progress and the path forward for the combination of psychoradiology and AI for complementing clinical examinations in patients with psychiatric disorders, as well as limitations in the application of AI that should be considered in future translational research.