Advancing Alzheimer's Diagnosis Through Transfer Learning with Deep MRI Analysis

Alzheimer's disease (AD) poses a significant health-care challenge, necessitating early and accurate diagnosis for effective management. This study presents a novel approach aimed at enhancing AD diagnosis through the integration of transfer learning, deep learning techniques, and meticulous data preprocessing methodologies. Leveraging a rich dataset from the Open Access Series of Imaging Studies (OASIS), comprising MRI scans from both healthy individuals and those with AD, the proposed method seeks to identify subtle abnormalities indicative of the disease. The methodology encompasses several key steps. Initially, MRI data undergoes rigorous cleaning and standardization using histogram equalization to ensure compatibility and remove irrelevant information. Subsequently, a two-step feature extraction process involving an autoencoder neural network is employed to identify significant AD-related features. These features are then combined with other relevant data to provide a comprehensive understanding of the disease. To optimize model efficiency, three algorithms iteratively refine the feature set, focusing on the most informative features associated with AD. Finally, a pretrained deep learning model, VGG19, is fine-tuned using the AD-specific dataset. Results demonstrate a significant improvement in diagnostic accuracy post-hyperparameter tuning, with accuracy increasing from 76.5% to 89.5%. The enhanced model performance across various metrics underscores the potential of the proposed approach to revolutionize AD diagnosis, offering promise for earlier detection and more accurate prognostication. This research contributes to advancing the field of neuroimaging-based diagnostic techniques for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.