There is now evidence that human newborns are endowed with core neurocognitive predispositions that allow them to start building a representation of the outside world and efficiently interact with their social partners. Notably, during my ERC grant we identified with Electroencephalography (EEG) a neural index of face processing based on a frequency-tagging paradigm and obtainable with less than two minutes of newborn’s visual attention. An early detector of neurocognitive predispositions and their impairment in newborns might provide a valuable biomarker for developmental disorders like ASD, an indicator of utmost relevance since infants with such disorders greatly benefit from early behavioral intervention. However, recording newborn’s EEG is currently possible only in laboratory settings, as no fully portable EEG system adapted for newborns exists in the market.
For this purpose, we designed a portable, wireless EEG-based device that allows easy, rapid and automatic testing of neurocognitive abilities in newborns in any context, including their homes. The device consists in a very light, ultra-low-power embedded system based on a previously developed architecture (BioWolf) acquiring electroencephalographic signals from 8 dry electrodes with a soft, silicon-based interface with the skin. A graphical user interface has been developed for easy and efficient use by any operator.
For the automatic and fast extraction of the neural response from newborn EEG data recorded with the portable device with a frequency-tagging paradigm, we developed NEAR (Newborn EEG Artifact Removal), an automatic artefact removal pipeline tailored to newborn EEG data, and an adapted version of Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) to rapidly measure the neural response.
Validation of the portable EEG system on adult subjects showed that 1) The EEG signal quality is equivalent to the one of commercial, wired EEG systems with standard dry electrodes and 2) The combination of NEAR and CCA successfully extracts the neural response even in the presence of movement artifacts (the most common ones in newborns and infants).
A newborn-size version of the portable EEG system has been designed and produced and is ready for validating the system on newborns and infants.
Due to a growing interest in the development of portable EEG technologies, the proposed portable EEG is a valuable project, potentially impacting societal, health and technical drivers. The IP protection analysis suggests a patent application in the short term.
