Cyton-based EEG Headset Prototype Used To Detect Brain Injury In Real-Time

Columbia University-based group NoMo Diagnostics founded by Dr. James Noble, MD, and Dr. Barclay Morrison III, PhD created an EEG helmet that diagnoses traumatic brain injury in real time.

Although in prototyping phase, the NoMo could be adapted for use in a number of contact sports, including hockey, wrestling, lacrosse, and, if the sensors can be made small enough to slip into a headband, soccer and basketball. Furthermore, they say, the device could be inserted into military helmets to detect when soldiers suffer concussions, either from being knocked off their feet or from enduring the shock waves caused by explosions.

What sets the NoMo device apart from previous accelerometer-based detection helmets is that it monitors the brain’s actual physiological activity and change in electromagnetic signal in response to these hits.

Field testing robustly demonstrated that the sensors communicate in live time with the monitoring device on the sidelines to indicate brain injury.

The NoMo researchers used the GUI to create their custom widget for processing and displaying football players’ EEG data.

Professor and neurologist Dr. James Noble, MD, Columbia University, is a clinician for professional athletic teams, including the NFL. Dr. Barclay Morrison III, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University, is principal investigator of the Columbia University Neurotrauma and Repair Laboratory and serves as the vice president of the International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury.