Remote computer-implemented methods for cognitive testing: Key Neurotech Patent #4

– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 6,280,198

Today we are fea­tur­ing a 2001 patent orig­i­nal­ly assigned to Sci­en­tif­ic Learn­ing Corp, and now to Lumos Labs Inc. (As men­tioned, we are fea­tur­ing a foun­da­tion­al Per­va­sive Neu­rotech patent a day, from old­er to new­er by issue date)

U.S. Patent No. 6,280,198: Remote com­put­er imple­ment­ed meth­ods for cog­ni­tive testing

• Assignee(s): Sci­en­tif­ic Learn­ing Corp; Lumos Labs Inc.
• Inventor(s): Bar­bara Cal­houn, Bret E. Peter­son, Michael M. Merzenich
• Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Neu­roCog­ni­tive Training
• Issue Date: August 28, 2001

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘198 patent describes tech­niques for improv­ing the fre­quen­cy and reg­u­lar­i­ty at which an indi­vid­ual can take cog­ni­tive tests. The pri­or­i­ty date of the ‘198 patent extends back to 1999, when cog­ni­tive test­ing often took place in for­mal test­ing cen­ters that required sched­ul­ing and trav­el­ing, mak­ing fre­quent test­ing a chal­lenge. The ‘198 patent dis­clos­es tech­niques for remote, repeat­ed admin­is­tra­tion of such tests, allow­ing for more accu­rate eval­u­a­tion of changes in cog­ni­tive per­for­mance over time. The ‘198 patent also describes using such tech­niques in con­junc­ture with med­ica­tion treat­ment so that effects of med­ica­tion on cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties may be quick­ly and pre­cise­ly under­stood. The ear­ly dis­clo­sure of such a fun­da­men­tal aspect of cur­rent med­ical test­ing and health eval­u­a­tions, along with a cor­re­spond­ing­ly broad claim set, are among the fac­tors that con­tribute to mak­ing the ‘198 patent a key non-inva­sive neu­rotech­nol­o­gy patent.

Abstract:

The inven­tion relates to a com­put­er imple­ment­ed method for remote­ly admin­is­ter­ing and mon­i­tor­ing cog­ni­tive tests on a per­son using a com­put­er net­work hav­ing a remote com­put­er and a remote admin­is­ter­ing com­put­er. The com­put­er-imple­ment­ed method includes admin­is­ter­ing a set of base­line cog­ni­tive tests to the per­son. The method fur­ther includes repeat­ed­ly admin­is­ter­ing a set of cog­ni­tive tests, obtain­ing a per­for­mance response of the per­son to the tests and upload­ing the test­ing infor­ma­tion via the com­put­er net­work. The method may also include mon­i­tor­ing the per­for­mance of the per­son. A data­base may be built from the per­for­mance response of mul­ti­ple per­sons. The com­put­er-imple­ment­ed method includes admin­is­tra­tion using at least two com­put­ers where at least one is local and the oth­er is remote.

Illus­tra­tive Claim 1. A com­put­er imple­ment­ed method for remote­ly admin­is­ter­ing and mon­i­tor­ing cog­ni­tive tests on a human sub­ject, said method being imple­ment­ed using a com­put­er net­work hav­ing a mon­i­tor­ing com­put­er and a remote admin­is­ter­ing com­put­er, said remote admin­is­ter­ing com­put­er being geo­graph­i­cal­ly remote from said mon­i­tor­ing com­put­er and local to said human sub­ject, said method comprising:

• admin­is­ter­ing at least one base­line cog­ni­tive test to said human subject;
• repeat­ed­ly per­form­ing steps a) and b) below: 
  • a) admin­is­ter­ing, using a remote com­put­er imple­ment­ed approach, at least one cog­ni­tive test to said human subject;
  • b) obtain­ing, using said remote admin­is­ter­ing com­put­er, a per­for­mance response of said human sub­ject in said at least one cog­ni­tive test; and upload­ing, test­ing infor­ma­tion per­tain­ing said per­for­mance response from said admin­is­ter­ing com­put­er via said com­put­er net­work, where­in said steps a) and b) are per­formed a num­ber of times effec­tive to eval­u­ate a cog­ni­tive lev­el of said human subject.

To learn more about mar­ket data, trends and lead­ing com­pa­nies in the dig­i­tal brain health space –dig­i­tal plat­forms for brain/ cog­ni­tive assess­ment, mon­i­tor­ing and enhance­ment– check out this mar­ket report. To learn more about our analy­sis of 10,000+ patent fil­ings, check out this IP & inno­va­tion neu­rotech report.