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

项目总结 超过40%的人在60岁时就开始经历某种程度的认知衰退。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先兆 神经退行性疾病，如阿尔茨海默病(AD)和痴呆症。 今天，阿尔茨海默病和痴呆症代表 一种经济负担 仅在美国，每年就有2770亿美元。没有任何办法可以治愈或延缓他们和药物的使用 到目前为止，研发失败了--大型制药公司正在退出这一领域的研究。尽管如此，生活 期望值正在上升。到2050年，痴呆症患者的数量将增加两倍，1320万美国人将与 广告。因此，寻找替代干预措施来减缓认知能力下降是当务之急和 对未得到满足的需求的必要回答。与年龄相关的记忆性能下降与 与年龄相关的深度睡眠或慢波睡眠(SWS)减少。有趣的是，这代表着一种可修改的风险 认知能力下降的因素。我们之前证明了增强老年人的陈述性记忆的能力 在实验室环境中，通过非侵入性的声刺激，操纵SWS一晚。这个 关键是声刺激的定时，它是基于对脑电信号的实时分析，目的是 放大单一的慢波。然而，必须验证这种声刺激是否可以 连续给药多晚可舒适耐受，是否显示记忆增强 一种累积效应。在这方面，通过这个SBIR第一阶段项目，我们计划将我们的技术从 实验室环境到家庭基地设置。特别是，我们的目标是1)实现和验证可穿戴设备 头带，适合在家中使用，能够实时从脑电信号中检测出SWS状态，并 相应地，提供声学刺激。2)在健康和MCI成年人中测试新设备的用户体验 60岁及以上。3)检查这些受试者在传递声学时的累积记忆增强 连续7个晚上进行刺激。该项目的成功成果将为实现这一目标开辟道路 第一款用于认知训练的可穿戴设备，基于通过脑电控制的声学安全操作睡眠 刺激。通过改善睡眠期间的记忆性能，建议的方法有可能 极大地延缓或防止与年龄相关的认知衰退的发生。从长远来看，我们系统的好处是 可进一步延缓阿尔茨海默病和痴呆症等神经退行性疾病的进展。

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.