AUTHOR=Shahid Sumaiya Binte , Kaikaus Maleeha , Kabir Md. Hasanul , Yousuf Mohammad Abu , Azad A. K. M. , Al-Moisheer A. S. , Alotaibi Naif , Alyami Salem A. , Bhuiyan Touhid , Moni Mohammad Ali 

TITLE=Novel deep learning for multi-class classification of Alzheimer’s in disability using MRI datasets

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bioinformatics

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioinformatics/articles/10.3389/fbinf.2025.1567219

DOI=10.3389/fbinf.2025.1567219

ISSN=2673-7647

ABSTRACT=IntroductionAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disabilities that often leads to memory loss, confusion, difficulty in language and trouble with motor coordination. Although several machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms have been utilized to identify Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from MRI scans, precise classification of AD categories remains challenging as neighbouring categories share common features.MethodsThis study proposes transfer learning-based methods for extracting features from MRI scans for multi-class classification of different AD categories. Four transfer learning-based feature extractors, namely, ResNet152V2, VGG16, InceptionV3, and MobileNet have been employed on two publicly available datasets (i.e., ADNI and OASIS) and a Merged dataset combining ADNI and OASIS, each having four categories: Moderate Demented (MoD), Mild Demented (MD), Very Mild Demented (VMD), and Non Demented (ND).ResultsResults suggest the Modified ResNet152V2 as the optimal feature extractor among the four transfer learning methods. Next, by utilizing the modified ResNet152V2 as a feature extractor, a Convolutional Neural Network based model, namely, the ‘IncepRes’, is proposed by fusing the Inception and ResNet architectures for multiclass classification of AD categories. The results indicate that our proposed model achieved a standard accuracy of 96.96%, 98.35% and 97.13% for ADNI, OASIS, and Merged datasets, respectively, outperforming other competing DL structures.DiscussionWe hope that our proposed framework may automate the precise classifications of various AD categories, and thereby can offer the prompt management and treatment of cognitive and functional impairments associated with AD.