STTR Phase I: Innovative Wearable Technology to Facilitate Cognitive Learning Transference

这项小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一期项目将为教育市场开发一种神经认知训练设备，针对执行功能（EF）和注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）及其对学习障碍、阅读理解和学业成功的影响。在美国，多达五分之一的人患有学习障碍（LD），教育一名学习障碍学生的费用是普通教育学生费用的1.6倍。35%的有学习障碍的学生在高中辍学，这是没有学习障碍的学生辍学率的两倍。这个STTR项目将通过开发一种训练认知能力的设备来造福有学习障碍的儿童。从更广泛的意义上说，这项技术也可以用来帮助有学习障碍的成年人。拟议的STTR项目的商业成果导致了一种可销售的产品，最初用于学校或其他现实世界的活动，以改善患有LD的儿童的结果，从而降低总体教育成本，提高成年后的生产力。本研究的目标是开发一种不受约束的神经反馈系统，使学生能够在多种环境中应用神经认知训练，包括在学校和在家学习。提出的工作的一个关键创新是将神经反馈系统与传统的计算机界面解耦，从而使现实世界活动中的神经认知训练成为可能。据推测，这种方法将导致改进的训练转移到新的场景，而不仅仅是一个特定的训练任务。为了实现这一目标，将开发另一种基于可穿戴设备的解决方案，通过视觉反馈向用户发送实时认知状态信号，使他们能够训练自己的认知能力。这个第一阶段的项目将开发一个能够实时脑电图（EEG）测量和分类的原型系统，通过可穿戴眼镜向用户提供反馈。可行性将在神经反馈训练试点研究中进行验证。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will develop a neurocognitive training device for the education market which targets executive function (EF) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their impact on learning disabilities, reading comprehension and academic success. As many as one out of every five people in the United States has a learning disability (LD) and the cost of educating a student with a LD is 1.6 times the expenditure for a general education student. Thirty-five percent of students with learning disabilities drop out of high school, which is twice the rate of students without LD. This STTR project will benefit children with learning disabilities through development of a device to train cognitive ability. In a broader sense, the technology could also be used to aid adults that have a learning disability. The commercial outcome of the proposed STTR project leads to a marketable product used initially in the context of school or during other real-world activities to improve outcomes for children with a LD resulting in lower overall education costs and higher productivity as an adult.The goal of this research is to develop an untethered neurofeedback system enabling students to apply neurocognitive training within multiple environments including during school and while at home studying. A key innovation of the proposed work is decoupling of the neurofeedback system from conventional computerized interfaces which enables neurocognitive training during real-world activities. It is hypothesized that this approach will lead to improved transference of the training to new scenarios rather than only working for a specific training task. To accomplish this, an alternative wearable based solution will be developed that signals real-time cognitive status to the user through visual feedback enabling them to train their cognitive ability. This phase I project will develop a prototype system capable of real-time electroencephalography (EEG) measurement and classification which provides feedback to the user through wearable eyeglasses. The feasibility will be demonstrated during a neurofeedback training pilot study.