Evaluating the feasibility of cognitive impairment detection in Alzheimer’s disease screening using a computerized visual dynamic test

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease without known cure. However, early medical treatment can help control its progression and postpone intellectual decay. Since AD is preceded by a period of cognitive deterioration, the effective assessment of cognitive capabilities is crucial to develop reliable screening procedures. For this purpose, cognitive tests are extensively used to evaluate cognitive areas such as language, attention, or memory. Methods In this work, we analyzed the potential of a visual dynamics evaluation, the rapid serial visual presentation task (RSVP), for the detection of cognitive impairment in AD. We compared this evaluation with two of the most extended brief cognitive tests applied in Spain: the Clock-drawing test (CDT) and the Phototest. For this purpose, we assessed a group of patients (mild AD and mild cognitive impairment) and controls, and we evaluated the ability of the three tests for the discrimination of the two groups. Results The preliminary results obtained suggest the RSVP performance is statistically higher for the controls than for the patients (p-value = 0.013). Furthermore, we obtained promising classification results for this test (mean accuracy of 0.91 with 95% confidence interval 0.72, 0.97). Conclusions Since the RSVP is a computerized, auto-scored, and potentially self-administered brief test, it could contribute to speeding-up cognitive impairment screening and to reducing the associated costs. Furthermore, this evaluation could be combined with other tests to augment the efficiency of cognitive impairment screening protocols and to potentially monitor patients under medical treatment.FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Council for Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities/ grant (B-TIC-352- UGR20); grant PID2021-128529OA-I00, MCIN / AEI / 10.13039 / 501100011033ERDF A way of making Europe; grant PROYEXCEL_00084, Projects for Excellence Research,Council for Economic Transformation,Industry, Knowledge and Universities, Junta de Andalucía 2021Circuits And Systems for Information Processing (CASIP) research group, TIC-117 (PAIDI Junta de Andalucia)PGC2018-098813-B-C31 and PGC2018-098813-B-C32 (Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities

Virtual Reality as a Portable Alternative to Chromotherapy Rooms for Stress Relief: A Preliminary Study

Chromotherapy rooms are comfortable spaces, used in places like special needs schools, where stimuli are carefully selected to cope with stress. However, these rooms are expensive and require a space that cannot be reutilized. In this article, we propose the use of virtual reality (VR) as an inexpensive and portable alternative to chromotherapy rooms for stress relief. We recreated a chromotherapy room stress relief program using a commercial head mounted display (HD). We assessed the stress level of two groups (test and control) through an EEG biomarker, the relative gamma, while they experienced a relaxation session. First, participants were stressed using the Montreal imaging stress task (MIST). Then, for relaxing, the control group utilized a chromotherapy room while the test group used virtual reality. We performed a hypothesis test to compare the selfperceived stress level at di erent stages of the experiment and it yielded no significant di erences in reducing stress for both groups, during relaxing (p-value: 0.8379, = 0.05) or any other block. Furthermore, according to participant surveys, the use of virtual reality was deemed immersive, comfortable and pleasant (3.9 out of 5). Our preliminary results validate our approach as an inexpensive and portable alternative to chromotherapy rooms for stress relief.Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities PGC2018-098813-B-C31 TIN2016-75097-PEuropean Union (EU) PGC2018-098813-B-C31Nicolo Association for the R&D in Neurotechnologies for disabilit

Virtual Reality Customized 360-Degree Experiences for Stress Relief

The latest studies in virtual reality (VR) have evidenced the potential of this technology to reproduce environments from multiple domains in an immersive way. For instance, in stress relief research, VR has been presented as a portable and inexpensive alternative to chromotherapy rooms, which require an adapted space and are expensive. In this work, we propose a portable and versatile alternative to the traditional chromotherapy color-loop treatment through four different 360-degree virtual experiences. A group of 23 healthy participants (mean age 22.65 ± 5.48) were conducted through a single-session experience divided into four phases while their electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. First, they were stressed via the Montreal imaging stress task (MIST), and then relaxed using our VR proposal. We applied the Wilcoxon test to evaluate the relaxation effect in terms of the EEG relative gamma and self-perceived stress surveys. The results that we obtained validate the effectiveness of our 360-degree proposal to significantly reduce stress (p-value = 0.0001). Furthermore, the participants deemed our proposal comfortable and immersive (score above 3.5 out of 5). These results suggest that 360-degree VR experiences can mitigate stress, reduce costs, and bring stress relief assistance closer to the general public, like in workplaces or homes

A self-driven approach for multi-class discrimination in Alzheimer’s disease based on wearable EEG

Early detection is critical to control Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression and postpone cognitive decline. Traditional medical procedures such as magnetic resonance imaging are costly, involve long waiting lists, and require complex analysis. Alternatively, for the past years, researchers have successfully evaluated AD detection approaches based on machine learning and electroencephalography (EEG). Nonetheless, these approaches frequently rely upon manual processing or involve non-portable EEG hardware. These aspects are suboptimal regarding automated diagnosis, since they require additional personnel and hinder porta- bility. In this work, we report the preliminary evaluation of a self-driven AD multi-class discrimination approach based on a commercial EEG acquisition system using sixteen channels. For this purpose, we recorded the EEG of three groups of participants: mild AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) non-AD, and controls, and we implemented a self-driven analysis pipeline to discriminate the three groups. First, we applied automated artifact rejection algorithms to the EEG recordings. Then, we extracted power, entropy, and complexity features from the preprocessed epochs. Finally, we evaluated a multi-class classification problem using a multi-layer perceptron through leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. The preliminary results that we obtained are comparable to the best in literature (0.88 F1-score), what suggests that AD can potentially be detected through a self-driven approach based on commercial EEG and machine learn- ing. We believe this work and further research could contribute to opening the door for the detection of AD in a single consultation session, therefore reducing the costs associated to AD screening and poten- tially advancing medical treatment.Spanish Government PGC2018-098813-B-C31European Commission Operative Program FEDER 2014-2020 BTIC-352-UGR20Economy, Universities and Science Office of the Andalusian Regional GovernmentUniversidad de Granada/CBU

An Automated Approach for the Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease From Resting State Electroencephalography

Early detection is crucial to control the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and to postpone intellectual decline. Most current detection techniques are costly, inaccessible, or invasive. Furthermore, they require laborious analysis, what delays the start of medical treatment. To overcome this, researchers have recently investigated AD detection based on electroencephalography, a non-invasive neurophysiology technique, and machine learning algorithms. However, these approaches typically rely on manual procedures such as visual inspection, that requires additional personnel for the analysis, or on cumbersome EEG acquisition systems. In this paper, we performed a preliminary evaluation of a fully-automated approach for AD detection based on a commercial EEG acquisition system and an automated classification pipeline. For this purpose, we recorded the resting state brain activity of 26 participants from three groups: mild AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI-non-AD), and healthy controls. First, we applied automated data-driven algorithms to reject EEG artifacts. Then, we obtained spectral, complexity, and entropy features from the preprocessed EEG segments. Finally, we assessed two binary classification problems: mild AD vs. controls, and MCI-non-AD vs. controls, through leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. The preliminary results that we obtained are comparable to the best reported in literature, what suggests that AD detection could be automatically detected through automated processing and commercial EEG systems. This is promising, since it may potentially contribute to reducing costs related to AD screening, and to shortening detection times, what may help to advance medical treatment.PID2021-128529OA-I00 Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and UniversitiesEuropean Regional Development FundsBTIC- 352-UGR20Operative Program FEDER 2014–2020Economy, Universities and Science Office of the Andalusian Regional Governmen

Bolonia 'for dummies'

El objeto de este trabajo es describir de forma sencilla y clara cómo impartir una asignatura nueva o transformar una asignatura existente, y la metodología docente para su impartición en el marco del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES). Hacemos especial hincapié en aquellos aspectos afines a las materias impartidas tradicionalmente en Ingenierías como Informática, Telecomunicaciones o Electrónica, titulaciones relevantes en el área de Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores. Enunciamos los principios básicos y el enfoque que motiva y dirige la reforma educativa de Bolonia. Consecuencia de ello, describimos métodos sencillos para transformarnos en unos “nuevos docentes,” alineados con la reforma educativa, tratando a la vez de minimizar el impacto que pueda tener en el profesor y de incluir nuevos enfoques de realización de nuestras tareas docentes.Departamento de Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores (Universidad de Granada

Modelos y herramientas para sistemas de rehabilitación visual

Tesis Univ. Granada. Departamento de Arquitectura y Teconología de Computadores. Leída el 28 de septiembre de 200

Bolonia 'for dummies'

El objeto de este trabajo es describir de forma sencilla y clara cómo impartir una asignatura nueva o transformar una asignatura existente, y la metodología docente para su impartición en el marco del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES). Hacemos especial hincapié en aquellos aspectos afines a las materias impartidas tradicionalmente en Ingenierías como Informática, Telecomunicaciones o Electrónica, titulaciones relevantes en el área de Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores. Enunciamos los principios básicos y el enfoque que motiva y dirige la reforma educativa de Bolonia. Consecuencia de ello, describimos métodos sencillos para transformarnos en unos “nuevos docentes,” alineados con la reforma educativa, tratando a la vez de minimizar el impacto que pueda tener en el profesor y de incluir nuevos enfoques de realización de nuestras tareas docentes.Departamento de Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores (Universidad de Granada