Device for adjusting optimal brain function developed at Lobachevsky University
A wireless software and hardware system for adjusting the optimal functioning of the brain has been developed by Lobachevsky University psychophysiologists. It also comprises special goggles, headphones, EEG sensors and pulse oximeters. The main mode of operation is adaptive neurostimulation.
The first samples of the device, called NeuroOptima, are already being used in federal clinics in the Nizhny Novgorod region for cognitive rehabilitation of adults affected by stroke and in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
"Based on the amplitude of brain activity rhythms, unique audio-visual content (tonal sounds and light of a specific frequency) is generated in real time. Over the course of a session, sound shifts from high frequencies to low frequencies. Light is perceived by the brain as patches of colour - first of red shades and then increasingly cooler shades. When a person hears a flute-like sound and sees a blue, silvery glow, the brain cells are already working in optimal mode," explains Sofia Polevaya, Head of Psychophysiology Department at the UNN Faculty of Social Sciences.
For the best effect, researchers have added the patient's own heart rhythm to these harmonics. This beat is generated using data from pulse oximeters. According to the scientists, such neurostimulation is only possible in people with a normal alpha rhythm (8-13 Hz), which is absent in people with depression, brain pathologies, children with anxiety disorders and ADHD.
"If there is no alpha rhythm, we can work with the theta rhythm. When its peak frequency coincides with pulsations of the transmitted light, it is possible to "pump up" the brain in just a few sessions, obtaining new harmonics already in the alpha range," comments Sofia Polevaya.
The results of research on alpha rhythm restoration and preparation of a person for neurorehabilitation were presented by Nizhny Novgorod scientists in the international scientific journal Life.
The researchers are planning to look for ways to fine-tune the brain even further and develop new modes of neurostimulation, taking into account an individual's age and the presence of pathologies.
The research was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation. Together with scientists from the UNN Psychophysiology Department, a team of researchers from the Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, headed by Dr. Alexander Fedotchev, author of the adaptive neurostimulation concept, worked on the project. Madin company acted as a business partner.
The clinical base for the project was provided by the Centre for Mental Health at the Privolzhsky Research Medical University and the Volga District Medical Centre.
