Functional Neuromonitoring of Children Using Computers

描述（由申请人提供）：我们建议确定一种新型的高度自动化的仪器的可行性，以直接测量计算机使用对儿童大脑功能的影响。对许多青少年来说，偶尔使用电脑，比如玩电子游戏，会消耗他们清醒时很大一部分的时间。虽然这可以提高一些重要的技能并提供教育机会，但也有证据表明，密集使用可能与社会孤立有关，可能会促进攻击性行为，有时会产生病理状况。鉴于视频游戏和相关媒体对个人和文化的重大影响，人们对研究其对大脑功能和行为的影响越来越感兴趣。在军事和工业环境中的人机交互过程中开发大脑监测方法的进展导致了高度自动化的基于EEG的方法的发展，该方法适用于测量从事复杂的计算机介导工作的成年受试者的认知神经信号。目前的项目将评估推广这种技术的可行性，用于监测玩视频游戏或从事其他类型的常见视频屏幕活动的儿童的大脑功能。在第一阶段，我们建议确定拟议系统的科学和技术可行性。特别是，利用我们最近在其他项目中取得的成功，我们计划评估与在儿童中使用这些方法有关的关键剩余科学和信号处理问题，并设计一个原型，该原型将在第二阶段完全实施和测试。拟议的系统将使具有成本效益的系统，大规模的研究，在儿童的大脑功能的变化，在基于计算机的活动，从视频游戏到与教育软件的互动。同样的技术也可以用于在更传统的活动（如阅读）中监测大脑功能，评估和改进治疗干预，帮助设计令人信服的有效教育媒体，并开发“闭环”系统，该系统旨在基于对任务相关神经激活的真实的时间监测来训练认知技能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to determine the feasibility of a novel, highly automated instrument to directly measure the effects of computer use on brain function in children. For many juveniles, casual computer use such as that inherent to videogame play can consume a significant portion of their uncommitted waking life. While this can improve some important skills and provide educational opportunities, there is also evidence that intensive use can be associated with social isolation, can promote aggressive behaviors, and can sometimes produce pathological conditions. Given the significant personal and cultural impact of video games and related media, there is growing interest in research on their impact on brain function and behavior. Progress in developing methods for brain monitoring during human-computer interaction in military and industrial environments has led to the development of highly automated, EEG-based methods suitable for measuring neural signals of cognition in adult subjects engaged in complex, computer-mediated work. The current project will assess the feasibility of generalizing this type of technology for use in monitoring brain function in children playing videogames or engaged in other types of common video screen-based activities. In Phase I we propose to determine the scientific and technical feasibility of the proposed system. In particular, leveraging our success in other recent projects, we plan to evaluate key remaining scientific and signal-processing issues related to use of such methods in children, and to design a prototype that would be fully implemented and tested in Phase II. The proposed system would enable cost-effective systematic, large-scale studies of changes in children's brain function during computer-based activities ranging from videogame play to interactions with educational software. The same technology could also be used to monitor brain function during more traditional activities such as reading, to evaluate and refine therapeutic interventions, to aid in the design of compelling and effective educational media, and to enable the development of "closed-loop" systems designed to train cognitive skills based on real time monitoring of task-related neural activation.