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Listen carefully
For years, the state of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been one of the most difficult disorders to diagnose. Traditional methods, such as individual clinical interviews, may be inaccurate because of the clinician's subjectivity or if the patient retains his symptoms.
Researchers at New York University now say they have simplified the diagnosis of PTSD in veterans by using artificial intelligence to objectively detect PTSD by listening to the sound of the voice. Their research, conducted alongside SRI International – the research institute to bring Siri to iPhone – was published on Monday in the journal Depression and anxiety.
according to The New York Times, SRI and NYU have spent five years developing a voice analysis program that understands human language, but can also detect transmitters and signifiers of PTSD. As theNYT According to the researchers, it's the same process that teaches automated customer service programs how to treat angry callers: By listening to minor variables and auditory markers that would be unnoticeable to the human ear, researchers say that the algorithm can diagnose PTSD with an accuracy of 89%.
Objective diagnosis
The researchers interviewed and recorded 129 veterans exposed to a war zone and collected 40,000 speech samples to study. Next, they used audio to teach AI what vocal changes were correlated with post-traumatic stress diagnoses – a slower, more monotonous rate was an indicator of post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as 39, a shorter tonal range with less enunciation.
The IA, they say, can detect minute changes in the voice, such as the tension of the throat muscles and the fact that the tongue touches the lips – all potential indicators of a diagnosis of PTSD.
"These are not the features of the speech that we thought," said Charles Marmar, professor of psychiatry at NYU and one of the authors of the paper. NYT. "We thought that the revealing characteristics would reflect an agitated speech. In fact, when we saw the data, the features are flatter and more harmonious. We captured the numbness so typical of patients with PTSD. "
Although AI is a breakthrough for VA clinicians, there are blind spots. By capturing only data from veterans, the potential of the program is limited to men in the armed forces – although this may be a proof of concept of a more universal technology. As it is refined, speech analysis could become an effective biomarker to objectively identify the disorder, allowing clinicians to accurately diagnose veterans and provide them with the health support they need. mental.
READ MORE: The military wants better tests for PTSD. The speech analysis could be the answer. [The New York Times]
More on PTSD: MDMA Treatment Eliminates PTSD Symptoms in 76% of Patients
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