Neuronetrix today announced that it has awarded two leading neuroscientists for innovative research that could provide breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease and locked-in syndrome.
The first award was granted to Dr. Mario Parra a Research Fellow from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Dr. Parra will use Neuronetrix’s COGNISION™ System to investigate memory deficits in Alzheimer’s patients. His previous work has demonstrated that brain networks involved in short-term memory binding (STMB) are sensitive to clinical dementia but are unaffected by normal aging, chronic depression, or cultural backgrounds. Dr. Parra will use COGNISION™ in his BioM-AD study, a 3-year, multi-center trial that will recruit 270 participants at Alzheimer’s clinics in Scotland, Spain, Columbia, Argentina, and Brazil. Dr. Parra noted that the COGNISION™ System offers unique capabilities that will benefit the study; “Its flexibility in integrating cognitive paradigms, together with its robustness to perform ambulatory assessments while still keeping excellent signal-to-noise ratios, and its on-line and off-line support offer a unique platform on which BioM-AD will rest.”
The second award was granted to Dr. Mijail Serruya, practicing neurologist and PhD neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Serruya is an “MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35” award winner for his work in cyberkinetics. He intends to use the COGNISION™ System to explore novel brain computer interface (BCI) methods for patients with locked-in syndrome – cognitively normal people who are unable to communicate due to severe neurological disease or injury. “BCI work has been fairly common for several decades now, but computer gaming-grade systems lack the high signal quality necessary for this rigorous application while traditional clinical-grade systems don’t lend themselves to the complex integration requirements for a practical implementation. COGNISION™ addresses these issues,” said K.C. Fadem, CEO of Neuronetrix. Dr. Serruya also intends to investigate the use of COGNISION™ as a novel diagnostic method in post-concussion syndrome. “Innovative neuroscientists around the world are continually exploring new applications of COGNISION™’s cognitive biomarkers,” said Fadem.