NEUROSCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND CREATIVITY
COME TOGETHER TO SUPPORT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
* The Centre for
Genomic Regulation (CRG), Starlab and the University of Barcelona presented
this morning Brain Polyphony, an interdisciplinary project that aims to improve
communication for people with disabilities.
* Scientists in the
project are developing a system that translates brain waves into sound. The
system, which is the only one of its kind so far, creates sound based on a
person’s emotions—as measured by electroencephalography (EEG) signals and
cardiac response—with no requirements for motor control by the person.
* Brain Polyphony
stems from a CRG initiative to encourage its scientists to carry out
translational research projects.
(July 10, 2015) Scientists
at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the research company Starlab, the
group BR::AC (Barcelona Research Art & Creation) of the University of
Barcelona and the Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investgacions Mèdiques (IMIM),
developed a device that produces sounds from brain signals. This highly
interdisciplinary team is led by Mara Dierssen, head of the Cellular &
Systems Neurobiology group at CRG. Its ultimate goal is to develop an
alternative communication system for people with cerebral palsy to allow them
to communicate—and more specifically in this pilot phase, to communicate their
emotions. Scientists are carrying out the project with volunteers who are
either healthy or who have physical and/or mental disabilities, working
together with the association Pro-Personas con Discapacidades Físicas y
Psíquicas (ASDI) from Sant Cugat del Vallès.
"At the neuroscientific level, our challenge with Brain
Polyphony is to be able to correctly identify the EEG signals—that is, the
brain activity—that correspond to certain emotions. The idea is to translate
this activity into sound and then to use this system to allow people with
disabilities to communicate with the people around them. This alternative
communication system based on sonification could be useful not only for patient
rehabilitation but also for additional applications, such as diagnosis," stated
Mara Dierssen. She added, "Of course, the technological and computational
aspects are also challenging. We have to ensure that both the device and the
software that translates the signals can give us robust and reproducible
signals, so that we can provide this communication system to any patient.”