Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Families

For promoting the health of the human brain, one of the promising tools at our disposal is—fittingly enough—the artificial brain. In a KBHN-sponsored symposium called “Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Improve Health Outcomes Across the Lifespan” at DOHaD World Congress 2022 in Vancouver, researchers in the field will discuss some of the ways that AI can improve outcomes for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) and their families. 

If the term “AI” brings science-fiction robots to mind, the reality fits more seamlessly into everyday life. For example, KBHN researchers Drs. Elina Birmingham and Siamak Arzanpour will share their experiences developing “smart” earphones that can selectively filter out whatever noises the user doesn’t want to hear. Their goal is to allow children with sound sensitivity—a common symptom of autism and other NDDs—to participate more fully in school and recreational activities without getting subjected to the sounds they find distressing (e.g. sirens; scraping chairs). The device relies on a machine-learning algorithm to detect the noises it needs to remove from the soundscape. 

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Dr. Régine Steegers-Theunissen and her team at Erasmus Medical Center have created a smartphone application called Smarter Pregnancy to offer tailored lifestyle tips to couples who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy. In doing so, it helps users maximize the health of their unborn child. Some conditions, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, can be prevented at the prenatal stage. Importantly, not only the pregnant person but also her partner can use the app, because their lifestyle has a heavy influence on hers. 

Steegers-Theunissen will also present an embryonic brain atlas that uses a deep learning approach to extract relevant data from three-dimensional ultrasound images. Her team has used it to examine the impact of folic acid on the growth of the cerebellum. “Our results support how important it is to take folic acid during pregnancy,” she says. “It’s already impacting brain development in the first trimester.” 

Finally, Dr. François Bolduc of the University of Alberta will describe his efforts to create an AI-powered chatbot that finds sound medical advice and the most valuable available interventions for people with NDDs and their families. Much like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa, it will respond to text or voice inputs from users. Unlike these chatbots, it will focus upon information from reliable sources. 

For everything it can do, AI has limits: families will always need a human touch as well. “People are not robots,” emphasizes Steegers-Theunissen. “Even though we are developing robots, it is also important, in our opinion, to have face-to-face contact… In a blended approach, they complement each other.”