Tim Mullen, left,
and Mike Yu Chi are the lead researchers on the study. Both are UC San Diego
alumni. Mullen
cofounded Qusp, a start up focused on analytics, and Chi cofounded Cognionics,
which developed
the EEG headset featured in the study.
(January 12, 2016) Bioengineers
and cognitive scientists have developed the first portable, 64-channel wearable
brain activity monitoring system that’s comparable to state-of-the-art
equipment found in research laboratories.
The system is a better fit for real-world applications
because it is equipped with dry EEG sensors that are easier to apply than wet
sensors, while still providing high-density brain activity data. The system
comprises a 64-channel dry-electrode wearable EEG headset and a sophisticated
software suite for data interpretation and analysis. It has a wide range of
applications, from research, to neuro-feedback, to clinical diagnostics.
The researchers’ goal is to get EEG out of the laboratory
setting, where it is currently confined by wet EEG methods. In the future,
scientists envision a world where neuroimaging systems work with mobile sensors
and smart phones to track brain states throughout the day and augment the
brain’s capabilities.
The headset
features 64 channels for EEG monitoring.
“This is going to take neuroimaging to the next level by
deploying on a much larger scale,” said Mike Yu Chi, a Jacobs School alumnus
and CTO of Cognionics who led the team that developed the headset used in the
study. “You will be able to work in subjects’ homes. You can put this on
someone driving.”
The researchers from the Jacobs School of Engineering and
Institute for Neural Computation at UC San Diego detailed their findings in an
article of the Special Issue on Wearable Technologies published recently in
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.
Sensors designed
to work on a subject’s hair are made of a mix of silver and carbon deposited
on a flexible
substrate. This material allows sensors to remain flexible and durable while
still
conducting
high-quality signals—a silver/silver-chloride coating is key here.
They also envision a future when neuroimaging can be used to
bring about new therapies for neurological disorders. “We will be able to
prompt the brain to fix its own problems,” said Gert Cauwenberghs, a
bioengineering professor at the Jacobs School and a principal investigator of
the research supported in part by a five-year Emerging Frontiers of Research
Innovation grant from the National Science Foundation. “We are trying to get
away from invasive technologies, such as deep brain stimulation and
prescription medications, and instead start up a repair process by using the
brain’s synaptic plasticity.”
Cognionics also
developed the Quick-20, a headset that can be applied faster and is
easier to use but
only offers 20-channels (the clinical standard 10/20 system).
In 10 years, using a brain-machine interface might become as
natural as using your smartphone is today, said Tim Mullen, a UC San Diego
alumnus, now CEO of Qusp and lead author on the study. Mullen, a former
researcher at the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience at UC San Diego,
led the team that developed the software used in the study with partial funding
from the Army Research Lab.