Functional Neuromonitoring of Children Using Computers

描述(由申请人提供)：我们建议确定一种新的、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。对于许多青少年来说，随意使用电脑，比如玩电子游戏，可能会消耗他们不确定的清醒生活的很大一部分时间。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，过度使用会导致社交孤立，会促进攻击性行为，有时还会产生病态情况。鉴于电子游戏和相关媒体对个人和文化的重大影响，人们对研究它们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，在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、基于脑电的方法的发展，该方法适用于测量从事复杂的计算机中介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类技术用于监测玩电子游戏或从事其他类型的常见视频屏幕活动的儿童大脑功能的可行性。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种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全面实施和测试。拟议的系统将能够以成本效益高的系统、大规模的研究，研究从电子游戏到与教育软件互动等基于计算机的活动期间儿童大脑功能的变化。同样的技术也可用于监测阅读等更传统活动中的大脑功能，评估和改进治疗干预措施，协助设计引人注目和有效的教育媒体，并能够开发旨在基于实时监测与任务相关的神经激活来训练认知技能的“闭环系统”。

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.