Noninvasive Neural Prostheses Using Mobile and Wireless EEG

Neural prosthetic technologies have helped many patients by restoring vision, hearing, or movement and relieving chronic pain or neurological disorders. While most neural prosthetic systems to date have used invasive or implantable devices for patients with inoperative or malfunctioning external body parts or internal organs, a much larger population of “healthy” people who suffer episodic or progressive cognitive impairments in daily life can benefit from noninvasive neural prostheses. For example, reduced alertness, lack of attention, or poor decision-making during monotonous, routine tasks can have catastrophic consequences. This study proposes a noninvasive mobile prosthetic platform for continuously monitoring high-temporal resolution brain dynamics without requiring application of conductive gels on the scalp. The proposed system features dry microelectromechanical system electroencephalography sensors, low-power signal acquisition, amplification and digitization, wireless telemetry, online artifact cancellation, and signal processing. Its implications for neural prostheses are examined in two sample studies: 1) cognitive-state monitoring of participants performing realistic driving tasks in the virtual-reality-based dynamic driving simulator and 2) the neural correlates of motion sickness in driving. The experimental results of these studies provide new insights into the understanding of complex brain functions of participants actively performing ordinary tasks in natural body positions and situations within real operational environments.