Non-sparse infinite-kernel learning for automated identification of Alzheimer's disease using PET imaging

Multi-kernel learning machine (MKLM) has recently been introduced to the research of computer-aided dementia identification and pathology progress tracking. Despite its good performance especially in case of using heterogeneous data, such learning schema and its variants usually utilize a L-l norm constraint that promotes sparse solutions, which may cause loss of potentially important information. In this paper, we propose the non-sparse infinite-kernel learning machine (NS-IKLM) for automated identification of Alzheimer cases from normal controls. In our approach, a modified constraint is utilized to promotes non-sparse solutions and kernel parameters are automatically tuned during the learning process. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated on a set of FDG-PET images selected from the Alzheimer's disease neuroimaing initiative (ADNI) cohort. Our results demonstrate that the proposed non-sparse NS-IKLM is able to achieve satisfying dementia identification at a relatively low computational cost.