Smart Brain Traineer

Mental health related disorders are prevalent throughout the globe and accounts for 25% of total population as reported by World Health Organization. As per World Bank report 2019, mental health issues have been ignored and cause economic loss of about 1 trillion USD. Up to 16% of total population o

Project Title

Smart Brain Traineer

Project Area of Specialization

Biomedical Engineering

Project Summary

Mental health related disorders are prevalent throughout the globe and accounts for 25% of total population as reported by World Health Organization. As per World Bank report 2019, mental health issues have been ignored and cause economic loss of about 1 trillion USD. Up to 16% of total population of Pakistan suffers from neuropsychiatric sickness. The prevalence rate of 22%-60% for anxiety and depression is reported for various localities of Pakistan. Literature on prevalence of psychiatric disorder affiliated with cognition such as attention deficiency is absent for Pakistan. Stroke, another commonly acquired debilitating neurological sickness, is ranked as 3rd leading cause of death and 1st leading cause of disability with an approximate frequency of 21.8% only for Karachi. World bank recommends the use of technology to deal with this growing challenge. Among variety of therapeutic interventions, brain stimulators have emerged as a promising solution but fails to ensure aesthetics instead gives messy appearance with cable connections making the wearer uneasy.

The proposed project endeavours to develop a therapeutic intervention which efficiently induces variable stimulation intensity and duration via mobile application for improving mental health. The flexible deigns is fitted into a cap with conductive fibbers embedded in the fabric to deliver stimulation for short duration that can induce functional changes, there by modulating brain activity to manage pain, cognition and neuropsychiatric disorder. The compact design is interfaced with a mobile control application for administration of variable stimulation intensity and duration hence ensures aesthetics, comfort and portability. The proposed solution incorporates wireless technology and possess a fusion of digitization to enhance health care and well-being so that the individual can optimally contribute in social and economic sectors.

This project focuses to elevate health care standards, promote capacity building and enhance productivity thereby increasing knowledge-based economy. The objectives of this project are aligned with 5 sustainable development goals (3, 4, 8, 9, 12) and also with Pakistan vision 2025. The outcomes of this non-invasive, drug free tailored solution will impact not only medical domain but other fields such as education, sports and human resource sectors. In addition, it will also comply with World Bank by implementing technological use in clinical practices.

Project Objectives

Objective 1: To design and develop a low-cost therapeutic intervention with an efficiency comparable to commercially available brain simulator by deploying indigenous resources and improve knowledge-based economy by reducing the dependency on imports and foreign expertise.

Objective 2: Offers a non-invasive drug free tailoured solution to reduce pharmacological waste and elevate health standards of all in general by treating neuropsychiatric patients and increase attention of healthy individuals.

Pakistan Vision 2020

Pakistan lags far behind in education, health and social development indicates a dire need of facilitating people with education to design and development new and cost effective therapeutically solutions for neurological, behavioral and psychiatric disorders will foster quality of living standards and enable people to contribute optimally for strengthening social and human capital complying with putting people first and Sustained, indigenous and inclusive growth  of Pakistan Vision 2020.

SDG #

3

4

8

9

12

Project Implementation Method

The implementation plan for this project of smart brain trainer is broadly categorized into four main stages. Each of which are explained below:

Stage 1 - Hardware Design:

The project focuses on deployment of endogenous resources to design and develop an aesthetically pleasant hardware circuit integrated in a cap design capable of administrating low intensity direct current via conductive fibers embedded within the fabric. The multiple sub-stages include:

• Literature review
• Component selection required for designing and deploying brain smart brain trainer
• Circuit design on software and software simulation
• Hardware design of the system (bread board, Varo board and PCB)

Stage 2 – Application Development:

In order to develop an aesthetically pleasant device it is required to develop a software application that wirelessly delivers the set current intensity levels for the set duration which is the novelty of the design and is a feature that is not offered by commercially available brain simulators.

The application comprises of a control panel with multiple options for various current intensities and choice for variable duration. The integrated circuitry will wirelessly deliver set current level for specified duration to a definite brain region

The application design and development comprise of the following steps:

• Designing a user interface
• Development and testing

Stage 3 – System integration:

Following the development of hardware circuitry and software application the next stage is integration of them both. The system will then be tested by selecting a stimulation intensity for a specified duration via a mobile application which in turn will remotely activate the conductive fabric of cap for administration of electrical stimulation

Stage 4 – System Validation:

This stage deals with evaluating the effectiveness of designed intervention with the commercially available devices for which a series of experimental sessions will be conducted on healthy subjects and both behavioural and neurological data will be recorded.

The substages includes:

• Experimental Design: Multiple training sessions with the designed and developed smart brain trainer and commercially available brain stimulator constitutes the experimental procedure. The efficacy of training will be evaluated by measuring changes both in neurological and behavioral outcomes before first and after last training session

• Study Group: 20 healthy participants with no history of neuropsychiatric illness will participate in the study after approval from university research ethic committee. Each participant will be well informed of the study procedure.
• Training sessions: Multiple training sessions will be conducted with both commercially available brain stimulator and self-designed and developed smart brain trainer
• Behavioural Analysis: Cognitive assessment via Stroop test, Numeric pain scale for pain assessment will be performed.

Benefits of the Project

• The device can be used as substitute of pharmacological therapy for patients with poor drug tolerability eliminating the risk of medication related side effects.
• Augmentative treatment to be used in conjunction with psychotherapy for treatment of depression, anxiety and enhancement of cognitive skills such as attention, working memory etc.
• Inexpensive therapeutic solution and is therefore attractive for establishment of healthy brain behavior relation and offers a promising solution for treatment of cognitive, social, affective and motor domains functions.
• The development of low-cost brain stimulator will help improve economy by elevating health status
• Enable individuals to execute activities with optimal performance
• Drug free method of reducing depression, anxiety, pain and cognitive performance
• Improve environment by reducing pharmacological waste.
• Inexpensive solution and is therefore attractive for establishment of healthy brain behavior relation and offers a promising solution for treatment of cognitive, social, affective and motor domains functions.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final deliverable of this project will be a cost effective, battery operated, non-invasive and non-pharmacological therapeutic intervention that will not only produces favourable effects in medical realm by managing pain and reducing the sufferings of neuropsychiatric patients but also outside medical boundaries as it will also improve performance, lower stress levels and increase attention levels of healthy individuals thereby producing a positive influence in educational, sports and human resource sectors. The proposed intervention will deliver low intensity direct electrical current of 0.5mA to 2mA range for short duration to stimulate/excite definite brain regions involved/associated with improvement of desired function via conductive fibres embedded within the cap design. In-order to ensure aesthetics, final deliverable of the proposed project will also include design and development of a mobile application that remotely activates conductive fibers in the fabric to administer stimulation thereby eliminating wire and cable connections responsible for messy and untidy appearance.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Health

Other Industries

Medical

Core Technology

NeuroTech

Other Technologies

Wearables and Implantables

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Quality Education, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com