Healthy Aging: an EEG-based wearable device to accurately monitor sleep and enhance quality for improved cognitive functioning

项目摘要 超过40%的人在60岁时就开始经历某种认知能力的下降。其中， 近五分之一的人患有轻度认知障碍（MCI），这是严重认知障碍的潜在前兆。 神经退行性疾病，如阿尔茨海默病（AD）和痴呆。 今天，AD和痴呆症代表了 经济负担 仅在美国就达到277 B/年。没有什么可以治愈或减缓他们和药物 到目前为止，开发工作已经失败，大型制药公司正在放弃这一领域的研究。尽管如此，生活 期望值在上升。到2050年，痴呆症病例的数量将增加两倍，1320万美国人将与 AD.因此，寻找减缓认知能力下降的替代干预措施是当务之急， 对未满足需求的必要回应。与记忆力下降有关的记忆力下降与 与年龄相关的深度睡眠或慢波睡眠（SWS）减少。有趣的是，这代表了一种可改变的风险 认知能力下降的因素。我们先前证明了增强老年人陈述性记忆的能力 通过在实验室环境中，通过非侵入性声刺激，操纵SWS一晚。的 关键在于声刺激的时机，声刺激是基于对脑电信号的实时分析， 放大单个慢波。然而，必须验证这种声学刺激是否可以被 连续多晚给药后耐受性良好，以及记忆增强是否显示 累积效应。在这方面，通过SBIR第一阶段项目，我们计划将我们的技术从 从实验室环境到家庭环境。特别是，我们的目标是1）实现和验证可穿戴设备 头带，适合在家里使用，能够实时检测EEG信号的SWS upstate，并 相应地传递声刺激。2)在健康和MCI成人中测试新器械的用户体验 60岁及以上3)检查这些受试者在给予声学刺激后的累积记忆增强 连续7个晚上的刺激。该项目的成功成果将为实现 第一个可穿戴的认知训练，基于安全的睡眠操纵通过脑电图控制的声学 刺激.通过改善睡眠期间的记忆性能，所提出的方法有可能 显著延迟或预防与年龄相关的认知衰退的发作。从长远来看，我们的系统的好处 可以进一步扩展到减缓神经退行性疾病如AD和痴呆的进展。

PROJECT SUMMARY More than 40% of individuals as young as 60 start to experience some sort of cognitive decline. Among these, nearly one person in five develops mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a potential precursor of severe neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and dementia. Today, AD and dementia represent an economic burden of $277 B/year in the U.S. alone. Nothing can be done to cure or slow down them and drug development has failed so far - big pharma companies are quitting research in this field. Notwithstanding, life expectancy is rising. By 2050 the number of dementia cases will triple, and 13.2 million Americans will live with AD. Therefore, finding alternative interventions to slow down cognitive decline is an urgent priority and a necessary answer to an unmet need. Age-related decline in memory performance has been linked to the age-related reduction of deep sleep, or Slow Wave sleep (SWS). Interestingly, this represents a modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline. We previously demonstrated the ability to enhance declarative memory in older adults by manipulating SWS for one night, in a laboratory environment, through non-invasive acoustic stimulation. The key is in the timing of acoustic stimulation, which is based on real-time analysis of EEG signal and aims at amplifying the single slow wave. However, it must be verified whether this acoustic stimulation can be comfortably tolerated when administered for many consecutive nights and whether memory enhancement shows a cumulative effect. To this extent, with this SBIR phase I project, we plan to bring our technology from the laboratory environment to the home-base settings. In particular, we aim to 1) Realize and validate a wearable headband, suitable for at-home-use, capable to detect the SWS upstate from EEG signal in real-time, and to deliver, accordingly, an acoustic stimulation. 2) Test user experience of the new device in healthy and MCI adults aged 60 and older. 3) Examine cumulative memory enhancement in these subjects upon delivery of acoustic stimulation for 7 consecutive nights. The successful outcomes of this project will open the way to the realization of the first wearable for cognitive training, based on safe manipulation of sleep via EEG-controlled acoustic stimulation. By improving memory performance during sleep, the proposed approach has the potential to dramatically delay or prevent the onset of age-related cognitive decline. In the long run, the benefit of our system may be further extended to slowing down progression of neurodegenerative disorders such AD and dementia.