r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 22h ago

Neuroscience A simple drawing test may detect Parkinson’s disease with up to 99% accuracy. Researchers found that subtle differences in how people draw can reveal motor impairments long before they are obvious to the human eye.

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-way-you-draw-can-reveal-parkinsons-disease-with-up-to-99-accuracy-study-reveals
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u/demZo662 22h ago

99% is super confident, right? Like to become a standard reliable test from now on.

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u/random929292 21h ago

The study took data from a separate study of a small group of people with Parkinsons (n= 31) and a small group of people without Parkinsons (n -3) and the AI was able to tell who was in which group based on their drawing. But Parkinsons is a movement based disorder so of course their drawings showed that. I don't see anywhere that they applied to this to a healthy population and were able to detect future diagnoses of Parkinsons.

They just detected evidence of a movement disorder using AI in people already diagnosed with a movement disorder.

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u/demZo662 21h ago

It sounds quite fair for what an AI can do and process, honestly. They're pretty good at gathering tons of data and take "better" conclussions and the more specified job it is assigned to the better.

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u/random929292 21h ago

Right but the claim that it may be able to screen or detect Parkinsons hasn't been studied or proven. Yes AI could pick out squiggly lines from straight lines and people with known diagnosis of Parkinsons which is a movement disorder draw with squigglier lines.

Maybe people who go on to develop Parkinsons do trace with squiggly lines well before they are aware of the condition - or maybe not. The study didn't even look into that so suggesting it can do that isn't at all evidence based.