Mixing logic programming and neural networks to support neurological disorders analysis

The incidence of neurological disorders is constantly growing, and the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques in supporting neurologists is steadily increasing. Deductive reasoning and neural networks are two prominent areas in AI that can support discovery processes; unfortunately, they have been considered as separate research areas for long time. In this paper we start from a specific neurological disorder, namely Multiple Sclerosis, to define a generic framework showing the potentially significant impact of mixing rule-based systems and neural networks. The ambitious goal is to boost the interest of the research community in developing a more tight integration of these two approaches.