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A NOVEL BCI FOR THE TREATMENT OF SLEEP DISORDERS USING EEG AND VIRTUAL REALITY
The current project aims at developing a system composed by Virtual Reality and Electroencephalography to achieve an effective treatment for sleep disorders. We will apply different stimulation paradigms to subjects in Virtual Reality while we record their brain signals to understand which ones are more effective at inducing sleep.
Keywords: Sleep; BCI; EEG; VR;
It is estimated that between 50 and 70 million Americans suffer from a chronic disorder of sleep and wakefulness, impacting drastically on their daily functioning and on their overall health1. For example, Insomnia Disorder (ID) is the second most common mental disorder in Europe2 and more than 6% of the world adult population in high-income countries suffer from chronic ID3. Many studies have tried to phenotypically characterize these disorders to reveal the biological pathways involved in these phenomenona. The use of Electroencephalography (EEG) has been widely employed for this scope. Researchers have found for example that the spectral composition of the EEG signal in people with ID contains more high frequency power during pre-sleep wakefulness4,5 and during non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep6. The development of potential systems to promote healthy sleep is clearly an important topic and needs as a starting point the understanging of what are the required characteristics of such a system to achieve the desired treatment goal. We aim at developing a Brain Computer Interface that answers to this question and provides a therapeutic solution: different multisensory stimulation paradigms (e.g., visual, acoustic) will be delivered through Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) scenarios and EEG signals will be recorded from the participants. The acquired data will be employed to understand what stimulation paradigm is able to influence at best the brain waves and to stimulate relaxation and sleep.
It is estimated that between 50 and 70 million Americans suffer from a chronic disorder of sleep and wakefulness, impacting drastically on their daily functioning and on their overall health1. For example, Insomnia Disorder (ID) is the second most common mental disorder in Europe2 and more than 6% of the world adult population in high-income countries suffer from chronic ID3. Many studies have tried to phenotypically characterize these disorders to reveal the biological pathways involved in these phenomenona. The use of Electroencephalography (EEG) has been widely employed for this scope. Researchers have found for example that the spectral composition of the EEG signal in people with ID contains more high frequency power during pre-sleep wakefulness4,5 and during non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep6. The development of potential systems to promote healthy sleep is clearly an important topic and needs as a starting point the understanging of what are the required characteristics of such a system to achieve the desired treatment goal. We aim at developing a Brain Computer Interface that answers to this question and provides a therapeutic solution: different multisensory stimulation paradigms (e.g., visual, acoustic) will be delivered through Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) scenarios and EEG signals will be recorded from the participants. The acquired data will be employed to understand what stimulation paradigm is able to influence at best the brain waves and to stimulate relaxation and sleep.
In this project, the following steps will have to be implemented:
1. Programming of the VR scenarios
2. EEG recording
3. EEG feature extraction and selection
4. Testing of the system
5. Data analysis
Recommendable skills: EEG data analysis, Unity, C#
Time effort required: Master project full time
In this project, the following steps will have to be implemented:
1. Programming of the VR scenarios 2. EEG recording 3. EEG feature extraction and selection 4. Testing of the system 5. Data analysis
Recommendable skills: EEG data analysis, Unity, C#
Time effort required: Master project full time
Dr. Stanisa Raspopovic, Assistant Professor
Greta Preatoni, PhD student
Neuroengineering laboratory, ETH Zurich
Email: stanisa.raspopovic@hest.ethz.ch
gretapreatoni1@gmail.com
Dr. Stanisa Raspopovic, Assistant Professor Greta Preatoni, PhD student Neuroengineering laboratory, ETH Zurich Email: stanisa.raspopovic@hest.ethz.ch gretapreatoni1@gmail.com