Project description
Virtual execution of common tasks may help improve cognitive function in epilepsy
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness or convulsions, are frequently accompanied by long-term difficulty with memory, attention or information processing. CognitiVRehab has developed cognitive training software that can be used at home to help patients restore some of their lost function. A virtual reality headset will immerse the user in 3D scenarios created by the algorithms to help the patient and improve their ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs). Using rigorous scientific principles of cognitive neuroscience and neuroplasticity, scientists hope to harness the nervous system's ability to change, reorganise and form new synapses, leading to better cognitive performance in daily life.
Objective
The real motivation behind Living Brain GmbH was born out of a personal story. Julian Specht (co-founder of Living Brain) suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy until 2015. Fortunately, he has undergone neurosurgery and today lives without any kind of cognitive impairment. However, this is the exception rather than the rule! More than 30 million people suffer from long lasting mild cognitive impairment due to neurological disorders that current cognitive trainings cannot solve. Paper-and-pencil exercises are standard of care, but barely relate to activities of daily life, not reproducing the richness of multi-stimuli of real-world settings. Even novel virtual-based therapies fail to deliver an optimal cognitive training, most of them don’t allow the patient to train in the comfort of his home. Barbara Stegmann and Julian Specht, founded Living Brain to tackle all those limitations. Living Brain developed a virtual-reality (VR) based cognitive training software. Its novelty stands in the fact that the VR software is scientifically based on the principles of neuroplasticity, providing immersive 3D scenarios that optimally reproduce activities of daily life speeding up cognitive recovery and trainings are not bound to a location (clinics/hospitals). Moreover, collection of data with the monitoring software enables Living Brain to build a feedback loop between the therapist and the patient and promote the highest levels of patient engagement to the trainings. Living Brain has been awarded an Exist start-up grant (€127,5K) and participated in Merck accelerator program (€50k). Living Brain revenue streams will mainly come from: B2B direct sales of VR software to clinics and a B2C channel directed to the self-paying patient. Under this feasibility study we will design the technical, clinical and commercial roadmap to validate our TRL6 product.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
69115 HEIDELBERG
Germany
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.