The future holds exciting potential for assistive technologies to support the health and well-being of today’s aging population. As technology continues to evolve, the potential impact assistive technologies could have on older adults’ ability to lead more independent and fulfilling lives grows.
Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology Member Dr. Jennifer Boger is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering, Schlegel Research Chair in Technology for Independent Living, and Director of the Intelligent Technologies for Wellness and Independent Living (ITWIL) Lab, which focuses on creating innovative and accessible technologies to support aging and promote the quality of life of older adults. Similar to Professor Boger, CBB Member Dr. Ning Jiang is also an Assistant Professor and researcher in the department of Systems Design Engineering. He is also the Director of the Waterloo Engineering Bionics (ENGBIO) Lab, which focuses on developing systems using AI and robotics to interact with our body’s physiological signals. Together, they are working to utilize their respective understandings of aging and EEG technologies to investigate the impact of fatigue and aging on EEG signals.
An individual's wellbeing is significantly impacted by one’s ability to complete the activities required to maintain their health and quality of life. Assistive technologies hold the potential to greatly improve quality of life by enabling an individual to accomplish a range of activities that would be difficult otherwise1. For this project, Professors Boger and Jiang have taken on co-supervision of student Seyed Amir Sina Ashgari from Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) through the exchange program between Sorbonne Universities and the University of Waterloo.
EEG is an electrophysiological, non-invasive monitoring method used to record electrical activity of the brain. Considering that research regarding the effects of aging and fatigue on EEG signals are limited, this project focuses on movement-related cortical potentials, before and after a voluntary movement, and its relation to aging and fatigue. To examine this relationship, Seyed says that data will be collected regarding EEG signals in both young and older adults. Electromyography (EMG) procedures to will also be used on study participants evaluate the activity produced by skeletal muscles and nerve cells upon voluntary movement.
In the long term, this investigation is a crucial step to the further examination of the effect of brain-altering conditions, such as stroke, on EEG characteristics. If EEG signals are found to be affected by things such as mental fatigue, this could make way towards the development of a more effective Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). This knowledge is relevant to a wide-range of to potential applications, such as stroke rehabilitation, says Seyed. In stroke rehabilitation, this can help to restore impaired motor function for an alternative means of communication and mobility. In all, Dr. Boger and Dr. Jiang’s research is a fundamental step toward understanding how to create more effective stroke rehabilitation interventions, and holds promise for greater assistive technologies in the near future.
More on Professor Boger and Professor Jiang's work can be seen on their respective lab pages, ITWIL Lab and ENGBIO Lab.
References
- Boger, J., Jackson, P., Mulvenna, M., Sixsmith, J., Sixsmith, A., Mihailidis, A., ... & Martin, S. (2017). Principles for fostering the transdisciplinary development of assistive technologies. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 12(5), 480-490.