Selection and Stability of Functional Connectivity Features for Classification of Brain Disorders

TL;DR

This study evaluates various feature selection methods for classifying brain disorders using connectome data from fMRI, highlighting LASSO as the most accurate and stable approach for identifying reliable biomarkers.

Contribution

It compares multiple feature selection techniques for connectome-based classification, demonstrating LASSO's superior accuracy and stability in distinguishing healthy and diseased individuals.

Findings

LASSO achieved 91.85% classification accuracy.

LASSO had a stability index of 0.74.

LASSO outperformed Relief and ANOVA in accuracy and stability.

Abstract

Brain disorders are an umbrella term for a group of neurological and psychiatric conditions that have a major effect on thinking, feeling, and acting. These conditions encompass a wide range of conditions. The illnesses in question pose significant difficulties not only for individuals, but also for healthcare systems all across the world. In this study, we explore the capability of explainable machine learning for classification of people who suffer from brain disorders. This is accomplished by the utilization of brain connection map, also referred as connectome, derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. In order to analyze features that are based on the connectome, we investigated several different feature selection procedures. These strategies included the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), Relief, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), in addition to a logistic regression (LR) classifier. First and foremost, the purpose was to evaluate and contrast the classification accuracy of different feature selection methods in terms of distinguishing healthy controls from diseased individuals. The evaluation of the stability of the traits that were chosen was the second objective. The identification of the regions of the brain that have an effect on the classification was the third main objective. When applied to the UCLA dataset, the LASSO approach, which is our most effective strategy, produced a classification accuracy of 91.85% and a stability index of 0.74, which is greater than the results obtained by other approaches: Relief and ANOVA. These methods are effective in locating trustworthy biomarkers, which adds to the development of connectome-based classification in the context of issues that impact the brain.