Computer detects human pain

• April 19, 2024

The technology It advances by leaps and bounds and its benefits surprise more than one person. US researchers say that a computer can detect the pain in the human body, when using a software learning to classify the data generated by brain scans .

According to the information released by Reuters, the study of Stanford University , published in PLoS One , will help diagnose patients who can not express their ailments, such as those suffering from dementia or babies.

The doctor Sean Mackey , of the Stanford University School of Medicine , says that people have searched for a pain detector for a long time, so he hopes that this technology will meet that goal, in order to properly treat various diseases .

In the research, a support vector machine, a learning algorithm invented in 1995, was used to classify activity patterns of the brain and determine if someone is experiencing pain or not. To train the computer, eight volunteers underwent brain scans , to observe their reactions when they were touched by hot objects in different degree.

In the tests performed, the computer had an accuracy of more than 80 percent when detecting the scans of individuals who felt or did not feel pain; however, the differences between a chronic or acute condition were not evaluated.

What is pain?

It is an experience sensory Y emotional unpleasantness associated with actual or potential damage tissue ; is triggered by the nervous system and it can be chronic or acute.

In addition, it is a physical, psychological and social problem that can affect the development and normal behavior of an individual.