Sensorium Inc., Announces Deployable Brain Activity Recording system

Sensorium, Inc., of Charlotte, Vermont, has produced a new deployable brain recording system that provides neurologists with important topographical maps of neuronal activity for characterizing head injury. Sensorium’s chief executive officer, Dr. John Kimura, said the system will allow the examination of wounded soldiers’ brain activity to occur in remote service areas, rather than having wounded soldiers flown thousands of miles for medical attention. Initial tests conducted by Uniformed Service Univeristy (USU) have head-trauma patients experiencing stimuli—flashing lights—while the brain monitor measures the electrical activity from various parts of the brain. The bio-potential synthetic-cap system connects to an enclosure smaller than a shoe box that processes and sends the data to a laptop, ultimately resulting in information neurologists can analyze certain types of brain damage. The early detection of brain damage from the monitor could eventually provide a measure of the magnitude of trauma and play a role in further exposure to high risk situations. 

 Dr. Kimura has collaborated with Dr. Paul Rapp of USU at Bethesda, Maryland to produce a brain monitor that can be operated on the battlefield. Currently, USU uses the system to collect data from soldiers diagnosed with TBI for the development of algorithms that could represent breakthroughs in the diagnosis of head-trauma.  Further research is need to understand how damage potentially results in neurological disorders that are not often visible for at least months or years after the initial trauma.

The portable nature of the system makes possible the measurement of the neurophysiological state of individuals before and after physical assaults to the head.  The digital form of the data is appropriate for inclusion in electronic medical records.

 For sure, such data sets will be important in development of characterization and understand of the nature of damage, not available at the present time.  Data from civilians and solders is essential for design and refinement of methods that probe centers of the brain for intactness.

Sensorium, founded in 1988, provides high performance electro-physiology recording systems. USU is the nation’s federal health sciences university. Established in 1972, USU operates with a budget of $97 million for operation and maintenance, while approximately $114 million is allotted for research purposes.