brain signals

New DARPA initiative aims to harness cognitive science, sensors and machine learning to detect early brain signs of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation

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New Cog­ni­tive Sci­ence Tool to Shed Light on Men­tal Health (DARPA press release):

Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 30,000 active duty mem­bers and vet­er­ans have tak­en their own lives – four times as many as those killed in post-911 mil­i­tary oper­a­tions. Cur­rent meth­ods to detect ear­ly signs of behav­ioral and men­tal health risk fac­tors rely on self-report­ing and screen­ing ques­tion­naires, which can’t reli­ably pre­dict sui­ci­dal­i­ty. Effec­tive behav­ioral health assess­ment is a mis­sion-crit­i­cal capa­bil­i­ty requir­ing nov­el tools to iden­ti­fy and help those at risk.

Today, DARPA announced the Neur­al Evi­dence Aggre­ga­tion Tool (NEAT) pro­gram. NEAT aims to devel­op a new cog­ni­tive sci­ence tool that iden­ti­fies peo­ple at risk of sui­cide by using pre­con­scious brain sig­nals rather than ask­ing ques­tions and wait­ing for con­scious­ly fil­tered respons­es. [Read more…] about New DARPA ini­tia­tive aims to har­ness cog­ni­tive sci­ence, sen­sors and machine learn­ing to detect ear­ly brain signs of depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and sui­ci­dal ideation

Let’s anticipate the potential misuse of neurological data to minimize the risks–and maximize the benefits

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The per­ils of open­ing the mind (Boston Globe):

“For­get the joy­stick. Today you can use your mind alone to nav­i­gate vir­tu­al envi­ron­ments or fly real-world drones. You can buy sleek head­bands that read your brain sig­nals and help you med­i­tate or stay focused. Or you can get them for your kids to make sure they’re work­ing, not day­dream­ing [Read more…] about Let’s antic­i­pate the poten­tial mis­use of neu­ro­log­i­cal data to min­i­mize the risks–and max­i­mize the benefits

Neuroengineering meets neuroethics to address treatment-resistant depression

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Dr. Maryam Shanechi. Cred­it: USC Viterbi

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Is This the Future of Men­tal Health? (USC Viter­bi School of Engineering):

“Brain–machine inter­faces (BMIs) pro­vide a direct path­way to the brain to trans­late brain sig­nals into actions … Below, Shanechi (Note: Maryam Shanechi, PhD, assis­tant pro­fes­sor of elec­tri­cal and com­put­er engi­neer­ing) answers some ques­tions about her work and what the future might hold for our under­stand­ing and treat­ment of men­tal disorders.

What poten­tial does this hold for the future not just of men­tal health, but of under­stand­ing our brains as a whole?

Neu­ropsy­chi­atric dis­or­ders are a major cause of dis­abil­i­ty world­wide with depres­sive dis­or­ders being the most dis­abling among them. About 30% of major depres­sion patients are treat­ment-resis­tant – that’s about 5 mil­lion peo­ple in the US alone. [Read more…] about Neu­ro­engi­neer­ing meets neu­roethics to address treat­ment-resis­tant depression

Augmenting physiotherapy via neurofeedback and neurostimulation: Key neurotechnology patent #43

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therapy control
– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 8,121,694

Today we are shar­ing a fas­ci­nat­ing patent from Medtron­ic.  (As men­tioned, we are fea­tur­ing 50 foun­da­tion­al Per­va­sive Neu­rotech patents, from old­er to new­er by issue date)

U.S. Patent No. 8,121,694: Therapy control based on a patient movement state

  • Assignee(s): Medtron­ic, Inc.
  • Inventor(s): Gre­go­ry F. Mol­nar, Steven S. Gill, Kei­th A, Miesel, Mark S. Lent, Tim­o­thy J. Deni­son, Eric J. Panken, Carl D. Wahlstrand, Jonathan C. Werder
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Neuro-monitoring
  • Issue Date: Feb­ru­ary 21, 2012

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘694 patent dis­clos­es meth­ods to treat patients afflict­ed with move­ment or oth­er neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­or­ders through brain-sig­nal feed­back. [Read more…] about Aug­ment­ing phys­io­ther­a­py via neu­ro­feed­back and neu­rostim­u­la­tion: Key neu­rotech­nol­o­gy patent #43

Fully concentrated on task at hand? Then your computer won’t distract you

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brain notification
Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 8,055,722

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Today we high­light a fas­ci­nat­ing patent by IBM that lever­ages brain mon­i­tor­ing (includ­ing EEG feed­back) to sup­press dis­tract­ing notifications–hopefully such a sys­tem will become avail­able soon!  [Read more…] about Ful­ly con­cen­trat­ed on task at hand? Then your com­put­er won’t dis­tract you

Monitoring neurological activity to detect epileptic seizures: Key Neurotech Patent #9

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– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 6,473,639

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Today we are shar­ing a 2002 patent assigned to Neu­ropace, Inc. (As men­tioned, we are fea­tur­ing a foun­da­tion­al Per­va­sive Neu­rotech patent a day, from old­er to new­er by issue date)

U.S. Patent No. 6,473,639: Neu­ro­log­i­cal event detec­tion pro­ce­dure using processed dis­play chan­nel based algo­rithms and devices incor­po­rat­ing these procedures.

  • Assignee(s): Neu­ropace, Inc.
  • Inventor(s): David R. Fis­chell, Jonathan Har­wood, Ben­jamin D. Pless
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Neuro-monitoring
  • Issue Date: Octo­ber 29, 2002

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘639 patent dis­clos­es tech­niques for detect­ing neu­ro­log­i­cal activ­i­ty, name­ly the occur­rence of an epilep­tic seizure based on algo­rith­mic pro­cess­ing of sig­nals mea­sur­ing brain activ­i­ty. [Read more…] about Mon­i­tor­ing neu­ro­log­i­cal activ­i­ty to detect epilep­tic seizures: Key Neu­rotech Patent #9