Deep into the Brain: Artificial Intelligence in Brain Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

Brain diseases (or neurological disorders) cause the disruption of the normal functioning of the nervous system, where structural, biochemical, or electrical abnormalities in the brain can result in a variety of symptoms. The expression “brain diseases” includes more than 600 disorders of the nervous system, such as epilepsy, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular diseases including cerebral vascular accidents (CVAs), stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, migraine, neuroinfectious, brain tumours, and traumatic disorders. According to the World Health Statistics 2020 published by the WHO, over ten millions of people have died from brain diseases yearly since 2016. The diagnosis and prevention of brain diseases represent a growing and one of the most difficult challenges of modern medicine. Early detection of these disorders could make a wide impact in providing better prognosis and more adequate therapies, as well as appropriate resource utilisation. Different types of neurological disorders are characterised by specific alterations in brain structures and functions. In order to enhance our understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying those clinical conditions, medical imaging techniques such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) are usually employed. However, neuroimaging approaches return a significant amount of information where identifying the specific brain processes associated with the clinical condition of interest might be challenging. Additionally, the standard processing of medical imaging outcomes can be time-consuming and comes with a non-negligible chance of error. Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have a key role in automatizing those processes, leading to more accurate clinical assessments. AI has received growing interest in the field of medical imaging and computational neurosciences over the last decade. Specifically, Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) are widely used to address brain-related open issues, classify different clinical conditions and predict the onset of brain diseases.

This Special Issue aims at collecting the latest works showing the successful employment of AI to enhance the investigation, diagnosis and outcome prediction of brain disease. Areas covered by this section include but are not limited to the following:

• Brain disease prevention
• Development and validation of AI algorithms
• Physio-physiological assessment
• Wearable technologies
• Neuroimaging in patients with brain disorders

All types of manuscripts are considered, including original basic science reports, translational research, clinical studies, review articles and methodology papers.

Dr. Gianluca Borghini
Dr. Pietro Aricò
Dr. Gaia Romana Pellicano
Dr. Alessandra Anzolin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• artificial intelligence
• brain diseases
• neurological disorders
• machine learning
• deep learning
• neuroimaging
• neuroscience
• neurophysiological measures
• mental states
• multimodal approach