Encoder-Only Transformer for Detecting Multiple Neurodegenerative Diseases from Gait Analysis

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) cause, among other symptoms, motor impairment. Given the incurable nature of the NDDs, several studies have investigated gait using artificial intelligent models as non-invasive alternative methods to assist in the diagnosis of these diseases. This work proposes a novel method using an Encoder-Only Transformer to detect NDDs, a multi-classification task, through gait signal analysis. The approach comprises data preprocessing, windowing technique, a modified transformer architecture and cross-validation evaluation. The results indicate the transformer-based architecture can be a promising alternative to accomplish this goal.