Method and system for quantitative assessment of facial emotion sensitivity

• US 8,777,630 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2009
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cognivue Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cerebral Assessment Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Duffy, Charles J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Xuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): GRANT, MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER
• Application Number:
  US12/561,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20110065075A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,763 Days
• Field of Search: 600/558, 434/167, 434/227, 434/236
• US Class Current: 434/236
• 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 5/162 Testing reaction times
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/163 by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/165 Evaluating the state of mind, e.g. depression, anxiety
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/168 Evaluating attention deficit, hyperactivity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4064 Evaluating the brain A61B5/031, A61B5/369, A61B5/14553 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4082 Diagnosing or monitoring movement diseases, e.g. Parkinson, Huntington or Tourette
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4088 Diagnosing of monitoring cognitive diseases, e.g. Alzheimer, prion diseases or dementia
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/411 Detecting or monitoring allergy or intolerance reactions to an allergenic agent or substance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4842 Monitoring progression or stage of a disease
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/06 of the multiple-choice answer-type, i.e. where a given question is provided with a series of answers and a choice has to be made from the answers

Abstract

A method is presented to address quantitative assessment of facial emotion sensitivity of a subject, where the method comprises the steps of: (1) presenting at least one scene to the subject on a display, the scene comprising a plurality of faces and a background on a display, the plurality of faces comprising a plurality of facial expressions; (2) adjusting at least one facial expression on the scene; (3) receiving feedback from said subject via at least one input device; (4) quantitatively refining the received feedback; (5) modulating the adjusted facial expression relative to the accuracy of the received feedback; (6) (7) transforming the modulated facial expression; (8) calculating a critical threshold parameter; and (9) recording a critical threshold parameter onto a tangible computer readable medium. An apparatus for quantitative assessment of facial emotion sensitivity of a subject comprising a display device, an input device, a control device, and a tangible computer readable medium. In its simplest sense, a quantitative assessment profile of facial emotion sensitivity by psychophysical responses is generated on a tangible computer readable medium.

Claims

1. A method for assessing the onset or progression of impairment in the nervous system functioning of a subject associated with a possible nervous system disorder, injury, derangement, or toxicity, the method comprising the steps of:

performing a facial emotion sensitivity test on a computer screen using a user interface for determining the lowest signal-to-noise ratio and stimulus sequence durations at which a subject can accurately and consistently identify a target stimulus from at least one non-target stimulus, wherein said user interface comprises a specific pattern of visual form or motion, wherein said target stimulus and non-target stimulus is comprised of a plurality of faces, said plurality of faces comprising a plurality of facial expressions that forms a gradient of facial expressions, wherein said target stimulus is comprised of at least one facial expression that is more extreme on said gradient of facial expressions than the facial expressions on said at least one non-target stimulus, and further wherein said facial emotion sensitivity test manipulates a task difficulty associated with visual form or motion characteristics of said specific stimulus pattern, said facial emotion sensitivity test further comprising the following steps executed on a computer processor;

presenting at least two stimuli simultaneously such that one of said at least two stimuli comprises a target stimulus satisfying a given target criterion and the other one(s) of said at least two stimuli comprises at least one non-target stimulus not satisfying said given target criterion;

moving a position of said target stimulus and said non-target stimulus on said computer screen according to said specific pattern of visual form or motion while changing a signal-to-noise ratio of all of said at least two stimuli;

monitoring the subject'"'"'s indication of said position of said target stimulus as said target stimulus moves along said specific pattern of visual form or motion and said signal-to-noise ratio and stimulus sequence duration changes, wherein the signal-to-noise ratio is increased until the subject has correctly identified the target stimuli

analyzing the subject'"'"'s positional error with respect to said position of said target stimulus and observed subject response motion dynamics errors associated with the subject'"'"'s ability to respond to said movement of said target stimulus;

creating a subject score deriving from the subject'"'"'s accuracy, speed, and precision in responding to said changes in said signal-to-noise ratios and stimulus sequence durations of said at least two stimuli;

adjusting said subject score relative to a normal range derived from at least one comparison subject groups studied under at least one stimulus condition;

deriving critical performance parameters from said subject score, said critical performance parameters associated with brain functional disorders or injury from diverse causes in the subject;

controllably recording and displaying on said computer screen said critical performance parameters and confidence interval parameters associated with said critical performance parameters; and

using said critical performance parameters in assessing, evaluating, or determining a possible presence, onset, progression, or therapeutic response of performance impairments related to the central nervous system functioning of the subject.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one facial expression is associated with happiness.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one facial expression is associated with sadness.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of moving a position of said target stimulus and said non-target stimulus further comprises altering at least one facial expression from happiness to sadness.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of moving a position of said target stimulus and said non-target stimulus further comprises altering at least one facial expression from sadness to happiness.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring the subject'"'"'s indication of said position of said target stimulus as said target stimulus moves along said specific pattern of visual form or motion and said signal-to-noise ratio and stimulus sequence duration changes further comprises a change in at least one of the following:

facial gender;

age;

the degree of happiness; and

the degree of sadness.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said critical performance parameters is implemented in a different functional impairment assessment test.