Systems and methods for cognitive health assessment

Abstract

An improved system for assessing cognitive function is described that uses tracked electrical activity of the brain of the individuals in response to a specific sequence of stimuli in generating data sets, which, for example, can be encapsulated as a data structure. The data sets can include tracked specific response types, at different times and amplitudes, including, but not limited to, event related potential signal components. Brainwave features including, event related potentials, are tracked in relation to both pre-attentive brain responses and consciously controlled attention responses.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for assessing cognitive health of a patient that is non-communicative or has limited ability to communicate, the system comprising:
 a sensor apparatus connected to one or more electrodes for placement on a head of the patient, the one or more electrodes configured for recording brainwave data with respect to a brain of the patient;   one or more sensory output devices configured for providing sensory stimuli to the patient;   a stimulus presentation mechanism coupled to the one or more sensory output devices, the stimulus presentation mechanism configured for generating a series of programmed stimuli to the patient while the sensor apparatus records brainwave data of the patient as the patient receives the series of programmed stimuli;   a waveform feature extractor configured to process the brainwave data of the patient to extract one or more waveform features of brainwave responses to the series of programmed stimulus, wherein the one or more waveform features include MMN responses present in the brainwave data; and   a processor operably coupled to a memory having instructions recorded thereon that are configured to:
 control the one or more sensory output devices to provide the series of programmed stimuli to the patient, wherein the programmed stimuli comprises a stimuli pattern of intermixed and/or repeated sensory stimuli; 
 record the brainwave data triggered by the stimuli pattern, wherein the brainwave data includes one or more MMN responses; 
 determine, based at least in part on the one or more MMN responses, a cognitive health assessment of the patient. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the sensory stimuli include visuals and/or auditory tones. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the sensory stimuli include any of:
 auditory tones, vibrations, and visual stimuli.   
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the assessment comprises a prediction of patient outcome. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the assessment is of a comatose state. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein determining the assessment comprises tracking the brainwave responses to assess different levels of conscious processing and a presence of indicators of a conscious state predictive of subsequent emergence from the comatose state. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the assessment comprises any of: a comatose state, a locked-in syndrome, a disorder of consciousness, a sensory or perceptual impairment, aphasia, motor impairments, subclinical seizure activity, fluctuating arousal, or the assessment is selected from any combination thereof. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein determining the assessment comprises encapsulating the one or more MMN responses into a data structure representing an automatic attention or a cognitive data value. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein determining the assessment comprises generating and presenting, to a clinician on a graphical user interface, a cognitive health assessment report generated based on automatic attention and/or the cognitive data value. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more MMN responses representing automatic attention or the cognitive data value are distinguished from other MMN responses based on a latency of the one or more MMN responses. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more MMN responses representing automatic attention or the cognitive data value are distinguished from other MMN responses based on a different voltage distribution measured across a scalp of the patient by the one or more electrodes. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further configured to:
 generate and present, to a clinician on a graphical user interface, a cognitive health assessment report generated based on a concentration data value of differences in the one or more MMN responses.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more waveforms further comprise any of: P300 responses, N2b responses and P3b responses. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more waveforms further comprise P300 responses and determining the assessment comprises predicting a coma awakening based on the MMN responses and the P300 responses. 
     
     
         15 . A method for assessing cognitive health of a patient that is non-communicative or has limited ability to communicate, the method comprising:
 placing one or more electrodes of a sensor apparatus on a head of the patient, the one or more electrodes configured for recording brainwave data with respect to a brain of the patient;   presenting sensory stimuli to the patient via one or more sensory output devices, wherein the sensory stimuli comprise a series of programmed stimuli in a stimuli pattern of intermixed and/or repeated sensory stimuli;   recording brainwave data of the patient as the patient receives the series of programmed stimuli according to the stimuli pattern;   analyzing, with a cognitive health assessment system, the brainwave data to extract one or more waveform features of brainwave responses to the series of programmed stimulus, wherein the one or more waveform features include one or more MMN responses present in the brainwave data; and   determining, with the cognitive health assessment system, a cognitive assessment of the patient based at least in part on the one or more MMN responses.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the sensory stimuli include visuals and/or auditory tones. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the assessment comprises a prediction of patient outcome. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the assessment is of a comatose state. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein determining the assessment comprises tracking the brainwave responses to assess different levels of conscious processing and a presence of indicators of a conscious state predictive of subsequent emergence from the comatose state. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the assessment comprises any of: a comatose state, a locked-in syndrome, a disorder of consciousness, a sensory or perceptual impairment, aphasia, motor impairments, subclinical seizure activity, fluctuating arousal, or the assessment is selected from any combination thereof. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein determining the assessment comprises encapsulating the one or more MMN responses into a data structure representing an automatic attention or a cognitive data value. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein determining the assessment comprises generating and presenting to a clinician on a graphical user interface a cognitive health assessment report generated based on the automatic attention and/or the cognitive data value. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein any of:
 the one or more MMN responses representing automatic attention or the cognitive data value are distinguished from other MMN responses based on a latency of the one or more MMN responses; and   the one or more MMN responses representing automatic attention or the cognitive data value are distinguished from other MMN responses based on a different voltage distribution measured across a scalp of the patient by the one or more electrodes.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 generate and present to a clinician on a graphical user interface, with the system, a cognitive health assessment report generated based on a concentration data value of differences in the one or more MMN responses.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein any of:
 the one or more waveforms further comprise any of: P300 responses, N2b responses and P3b responses; and   the one or more waveforms further comprise P300 responses and determining the assessment comprises predicting a coma awakening based on the MMN responses and the P300 responses.   
     
     
         26 . A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for controlling a cognitive health assessment system comprising: a sensor apparatus connected to one or more electrodes for placement on a head of the patient and configured for recording brainwave data with respect to a brain of the patient, one or more sensory output devices configured for providing sensory stimuli to the patient, a stimulus presentation mechanism coupled to the one or more sensory output devices and configured for generating a series of programmed stimuli to the patient, and a waveform feature extractor configured to process the brainwave data of the patient to extract one or more waveform features of brainwave responses to the series of programmed stimulus that include one or more MMN responses, wherein the program, when executed by one or more processors of the system, causes the one or more processors to perform the method of  claim 15 .