Multimodal Intelligent Neural Interface for Early Detection and Treating of Post-stroke Dementia

Lead Research Organisation: University of Sheffield
Department Name: Automatic Control and Systems Eng

Abstract

The prevalence of stroke will double in 20 years. Almost a quarter of people who have stroke will develop signs of dementia after three to six months. The need for improving assessment, monitoring, and treating post-stroke cognitive impairment and dementia is listed 2nd in the top 10 priorities for stroke rehabilitation by The UK Stroke Association.

This timely project aims to address this growing global challenge by improving the early detection and treatment of post-stroke dementia. This project has two main objectives:

- Improve early diagnosis of dementia in stroke survivors by developing a multimodal, wearable, and intelligent assessment tool, consisting of computerised cognitive tests, brain recordings from a low-density EEG system, and CognoSpeaK [1] (our newly developed intelligent tool that automatically measures cognitive function by analysing speech)

- Explore the feasibility, acceptability and usability of our newly developed P300-based brain-computer interface game [2] for improving cognitive performance in stroke survivors with and without mild cognitive impairment.

To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, you will require to design and conduct experimental research, collect longitudinal data from stroke patients, process the collected data, and develop machine learning algorithms to identify robust biomarkers that could accurately monitor cognitive function and predict its failure in advance.

You will work in Brain-computer Interface group at University of Sheffield. Our group is uniquely multidisciplinary and diverse, integrating exceptional research programs that span bioengineering, data science and clinical, experimental and computational neuroscience. The research vision of our group is to develop brain-directed therapies and tools for improving human's cognitive and physical performance.

You will participate in a highly interdisciplinary project and interact and collaborate with system engineers, computer scientists, neuroscientist and medical doctors. You will receive broad range of training in our team, including EEG data recording and processing, statistical analysis, machine learning on biological data, ethics in research and data management, as well as scientific writing and presentation. You also have the opportunity to gain unique skills on commercialising biomedical devices.

Publications

10 25 50

Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
MR/W006944/1 01/10/2022 30/09/2028
2901977 Studentship MR/W006944/1 02/10/2023 01/10/2027 Mian Kou