Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting brain electric signal
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-26
2002-08-13
Hindenburg, Max (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting brain electric signal
Reexamination Certificate
active
06434419
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to psychometric, neuropsychological and neurophysiological tests for measuring mental acuity and more particularly to the use of electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings for such measurements.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is currently no method that quickly and objectively measures an individual's overall cognitive ability. Nor is there a method that is able to do so on repeated occasions in order to measure changes in overall cognitive ability due to disease, injury, or other conditions affecting higher cognitive brain functions, or such changes due to remedial treatment. A person's overall cognitive ability, often called “general intelligence,” is considered an attempt to quantify analytic cognitive ability. It does not measure other types of intelligence i.e., creative and practical, or “multiple intelligences” i.e., linguistic, musical, bodily/kinesthetic, emotional, interpersonal and intrapersonal.
The presently available various psychometric tests of overall cognitive ability, such as the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) or Raven's Progressive Matrices, each suffer from one or more deficiencies. These deficiencies include cultural bias, subjective interpretation, excessive test length, high cost, and lack of assessment of the subject's motivational factors in performing the test. Also, most test instruments lack multiple applications of the test that would be needed for repeated testing. Additionally, no psychometric test provides direct information about the subject's actual brain function and hence supplies no information relative to the putative pharmacological action of a drug, disease, injury or therapy which is being studied. This lack of suitable tests is a major barrier to long term assessment of changes in an individual's level of overall cognitive ability. This assessment is of paramount importance in evaluating the success of a putative treatment for any form of treatment affecting higher cognitive brain functions, for example drugs to aid memory in elderly patients. In principle direct measurement of brain functions underlying overall cognitive ability, by EEG measurements of brain wave activity, could overcome these deficiencies. Prior attempts at such EEG measurements, however, have not been fruitful because of two major shortcomings. First, there was the failure to measure brain activity while the subject performed a task taxing the subject's mental processes, such as working memory, that are highly related to overall cognitive ability. Merely recording brain activity while the subject sits idly, watching a meaningless flashing light, or performing a task not requiring her or his full attention is insufficient to produce patterns of brain activity characterizing individual differences in overall cognitive ability or changes in an individual's overall cognitive ability over an extended time period. Second, there was a reliance on single, overly simplistic measures of brain function derived from theoretical constructs without sufficient support from empirical data. For instance, although it may seem reasonable a priori that higher overall cognitive ability should be associated with faster brain processing, it is not necessarily true that a measure of the speed of brain processing is actually sufficient to characterize individual differences in overall cognitive ability.
In Schmidt et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,826, the effectiveness of video-taped training material is tested using EEG. In one method, the student's brain wave alpha and beta band activity is analyzed to determine attention and cognitive activity. In another method EP (Evoked Potential) responses are measured using multiple choice questions.
In Cohen U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,452 a single channel of EEG is measured in an attempt to ascertain if a student is undergoing short-term learning or long-term learning.
In Gevins U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,166 EEG signals are used to alter a computer program, i.e. present more or less difficult test material to the user.
Bennett U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,069 seeks to measure the intelligence of a subject using pulsed stimuli to evoke the subject's responses, which are compared to the frequencies of responses of others.
These patents, and the other references cited, are incorporated by reference herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a novel method and system called “Neurocognitive Ability Measurement System” is provided for testing the brain activity of subjects while they perform a simple cognitive task in order to measure overall cognitive ability.
The main advantage of this system is that, by measuring neurological signals of basic cognitive processes underlying overall cognitive ability, it is able to determine a subject's cognitive ability quickly, objectively, without cultural bias, and on repeated occasions. This differs from current psychometric intelligence tests that are lengthy, subjectively interpreted, depend in part upon culturally specific knowledge and are not designed to be used for repeated testing of the same person. The “Neurocognitive Ability Measurement System” also differs from prior attempts to use measures of brain activity to characterize cognitive ability in a number of essential respects. First, prior methods did not record brain activity while a subject performed a task engaging specific cognitive functions, such as working memory, that are highly related to overall cognitive ability. Thus, the prior measures were not specific to higher intellectual functioning. Second, prior methods only used single measurements of brain function to predict cognitive ability, and consequently had only a modest correlation with a subject's overall cognitive ability. By contrast, the “Neurocognitive Ability Measurement System” combines several independent measurements of brain function and consequently produces a high correlation with a subject's overall cognitive ability as measured with a standard psychometric test. Third, in estimating overall cognitive ability, prior methods that measured brain activity did not consider the speed or accuracy of a subject's performance of a cognitive task, further restricting the test's accuracy. The “Neurocognitive Ability Measurement System” combines measures of both brain function and task performance to achieve a more accurate prediction of a subject's cognitive ability.
The system operates as follows: the subject is tested while performing a simple cognitive task as his or her brain waves are recorded. The subject's overall cognitive ability (“general intelligence”) is computed by combining task performance measures and brain wave measures according to a formula previously determined from a normative group of subjects of the same age range.
The system uses a digital computer workstation having a screen and a response input device, and an EEG device (electroencephalograph) to measure the brain waves of the subject. The EEG device also measures eye and scalp muscle activity and head movements in order to determine whether and how the brain waves are contaminated by artifacts. The system either removes such contaminants when possible or else discards the contaminated data. The subject is presented with a brief task on the screen that tests a fundamental cognitive function that is highly related to overall cognitive ability, preferably the function of working memory. (Working memory refers to the limited capacity to control attention and sustain its focus on a particular active mental representation for several seconds. This ability plays an important role in comprehension, reasoning, planning, and learning.) A subject's behavioral responses and brain waves are measured as she or he performs a series of repetitions of easy and more difficult versions of the task. The subject's brain waves are also recorded at rest for comparison with data recorded during performance of the task. A plurality of prima
Gevins Alan S.
Smith Michael E.
Fay Kaplun & Marcin LLP
Gerber Eliot S.
SAM Technology, Inc.
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