An animal model of radiological medical image reading: detection of lung abnormalities in multi-slice CT by pigeons (Columba livia)
Abstract
Accurate detection of pathologies like pulmonary lung nodules is critical as they can be a marker of a potential cancerous, life-threatening condition. The detection of such nodules, however, is a difficult visual task requiring extensive radiological training. But, considering this process as a perceptual categorization task generates avenues for using pigeons to understand the underlying visual processes as these birds are experts at categorizing objects and behaviors visually, using a highly flexible and accurate visual cognition. Using a go/no-go paradigm, we presented six pigeons with short movies of CT sections that contained a solid lung nodule (Abnormal) or CT sections without nodules (Normal). Half the pigeons were reinforced for pecking during Abnormal, and the other half during Normal. Pigeons learned to detect the nodules and generalized their discrimination to novel exemplars, indicating the use of implicit visual categorization processes. Critically, this categorization transferred to different, visually distinct abnormalities (emphysema and ground glass nodules). Hence, pigeons can be employed as an animal model for evaluating perceptual processes during abnormality detection and may give insight into novel radiological training optimized by pigeons’ implicit visual cognitive mechanisms instead of explicit didactic instruction.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Improving the translation of search strategies using the Polyglot Search Translator: a randomized controlled trial
- Nutritional, Physical, Cognitive, and Combination Interventions and Frailty Reversal Among Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- Clinical characteristics and risk factors associated with COVID-19 severity in patients with haematological malignancies in Italy: a retrospective, multicentre, cohort study
- A randomized, controlled trial of oral propranolol in infantile hemangioma
- Clinical phenotypes of delirium during critical illness and severity of subsequent long-term cognitive impairment: a prospective cohort study
- Increased physical activity improves sleep and mood outcomes in inactive people with insomnia: a randomized controlled trial
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.