Collective brain measurement system and method

• US 20050273017A1
• Filed: 03/28/2005
• Published: 12/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: The Brain Resource Company
• Original Assignee: The Brain Resource Company
• Inventors: Gordon, Evian
• Application Number:
  US11/091,048
• Publication Number:
  US 20050273017A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/544
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/167 Personality evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/168 Evaluating attention deficit, hyperactivity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/374 Detecting the frequency distribution of signals, e.g. detecting delta, theta, alpha, beta or gamma waves
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4076 Diagnosing or monitoring particular conditions of the nervous system A61B5/4821, A61B5/4824 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4088 Diagnosing of monitoring cognitive diseases, e.g. Alzheimer, prion diseases or dementia
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A method of providing diagnosis capability, diagnosis of the effects of treatment or diagnosis of distinctive capabilities of a test subject, the method can comprise the steps of: (a) carrying out a series of tests on a group of subjects of at least two modal measures, the modal measures comprising brain-body function, brain structure, neuropsychological, personality, genetics, personal history, performance and behaviour; and (b) examining the inter-relationships between the modal measures to output an analysis of the inter-relationships of two or more measures of the tests results of the group of subjects.

Claims

1. A method of providing diagnosis capability, diagnosis of the effects of treatment or diagnosis of distinctive capabilities of a test subject, the method comprises the steps of:

(a) carrying out a series of tests on a group of subjects of at least two modal measures, said modal measures comprising brain-body function, brain structure, neuropsychological, personality, genetics, personal history, performance and behaviour; and

(b) examining the inter-relationships between said modal measures to output an analysis of the inter-relationships of two or more measures of the tests results of said group of subjects.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

(c) examining a test subject on at least two of said modal measures;

(d) analysing the results of step (c) relative to the test results of said group of subjects to determine a distinctive pattern of results for said test subject.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein said test subject is examined on the same series of tests as carried out on said group of subjects.

4. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein said test subject is examined on a subset of the series of tests as carried out on said group of subjects.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said test subjects are geographically dispersed.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the number of control subjects is at least 100.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said step (a) further includes the measuring of electromagnetic signals emanating from the subject'"'"'s brain in response to various interactive tasks carried out by the test subject.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein said external stimuli include a series of interactive tests conducted by the subject.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the measured electromagnetic signals are subjected to signal processing to extract measurements of at least one of delta, theta, alpha, beta gamma frequency ranges for comparison with corresponding ranges of said test subjects.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 further comprising detecting abnormal power levels in said frequency ranges.

11. A method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising extracting event related potentials from said electromagnetic signals.

12. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein said interactive tests include at least one of:

a Resting EEG test;

a habituation paradigm test, an efficiency of target processing test, a visual tracking task, an inhibition test, a conscious and subconscious processing of facial emotions test, a memory and sustained attention test, a planning and error correction test an a fight and flight reflex test.

13. A method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising the step of conducting a gamma phase synchrony analysis of said electromagnetic signals.

14. A method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising the step of extracting tonic or phasic effects from said electromagnetic signal.

15. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein said series of tests include a series of information processing tasks, with information designed to be processed over varying periods of time.

16. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein said electrical signals are measured at multiple locations on the head of a patient and combined together.

17. A method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising recording genetic, structural MRI and functional MRI information for said test patient.