Presentation
COSMICBRAIN
Using cosmology tools to read patterns in the brain.
We adapt methods from galaxy surveys and cosmological simulations to brain imaging, building interpretable models of brain aging with potential biomarkers for mental and neurodegenerative disorders.
The structure and activity of the brain change as we grow older. When a person’s brain looks “older” or “younger” than their actual age, that gap can flag health risks. COSMICBRAIN brings in tools originally built to study galaxy distribution—great at finding patterns across many scales—to read brain scans more accurately and transparently. The goal is earlier detection and clearer understanding of mental health conditions and brain diseases.
Sonification (interactive demo): we transform neuroimaging data (and their cosmological analogs) into sound, mapping multiscale features to acoustic attributes (pitch, timbre, rhythm) to facilitate exploration, interpretation, and accessibility. See the code on GitHub: github.com/pacoshu/sonification and try the interactive page: astra.iac.es/cosmicbrain/ .
This project is part of the Technology Transfer efforts led by the IAC through the IACTEC: www.iac.es/en/science-and-technology/technology-transfer-iactec
The research conducted in this work was primarily funded by the the Cabildo de Tenerife under IACTEC Technological Training Program, grant TF INNOVA, in support of the Cosmic Brain project starting in 2021 (PI: FSK). We also thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for financing the Big Data of the Cosmic Web project: PID2020-120612GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (PI: FSK) which provided tools and facilities to the Cosmic Brain project.
