York U researchers look to transform healthcare with revolutionary brain technology
Imagine wearing a headset that not only listens to your brain waves but can also predict a seizure before it happens, potentially saving lives and dramatically increasing the independence of individuals with epilepsy. Or consider a device that can interpret the intention behind movement in someone who has lost control of their limbs, offering new strides in neurorehabilitation.
Lassonde School of Engineering associate professor Hossein Kassiri and York University alumni Alireza Dabbaghian (PhD’24) are one step closer to making this possible with their innovation in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs).
Wearable BCIs, though widely varied in design—from headbands to headsets—captures real-time brain activity without the need for surgical interventions.
Despite the existence of various forms of implantable and wearable BCIs in the market, the quality of brainwave recordings is a fundamental issue. Outside of a controlled clinical setting, the quality of brain recordings significantly decreases since patient movements can contaminate data with noise – known as motion artifacts.
“With current products, if a person makes any movement such as talking, blinking or frowning, it affects the quality of the recording significantly,” said Kassiri. “It's just going to be a lot of noise that is being picked up rather than actual brain waves.”
Enter Kassiri and Dabbaghian, whose team has created an innovative “active digital electrode" with advanced electronics embedded directly into each electrode. These devices can discern, isolate, and remove motion artifacts in real-time, ensuring clean signal recordings even with movement, offering clinical-grade data accuracy outside hospital settings and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with non-invasive BCIs.
“You can’t do anything without clean data and the first step of any BCI-related application is to capture high quality brainwaves,” said Kassiri. “We’re moving in the direction of decoding what is happening in the brain and neural technologies make it possible to read brain signals.”
One such example is a person recovering from stroke, unable to move their arm. According to Kassiri, with new neural tech, the person could regain control by simply thinking about the movement. Instead of months of passive therapy, the brain-computer interface could help retrain the brain to reconnect with their body, dramatically speeding up recovery.
Over the last seven years, Kassiri and Dabbaghian’s combined efforts have resulted in two distinct products in the pipeline— licensing their sophisticated active electrodes to existing headset manufacturers and creating their own state-of-the-art wearable headset crafted with the dual aim of providing high-quality signal recording solutions and ensuring user comfort across prolonged usage.
While hospitals have employed brain signal recording for decades via electroencephalography (EEG), the potential now extends far beyond these clinical walls, thanks to wearable technologies.
Advancements in BCIs can alleviate the burden on healthcare systems with limited resources, lengthy wait times, and the need for specialist technicians and neurologists to interpret the data. Wearable devices enable continuous, real-time monitoring in the comfort of one's home, and this York innovation opens doors to preventative medicine and personalized healthcare like never before.
The team’s success has widely been supported by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) as well as York’s IP Innovation Clinic, the largest intellectual property (IP) legal clinic in Canada based out of Osgoode Hall Law School, providing pro bono legal support to community members looking for support.
Earlier this year, the researchers received the $125,000 Idea to Innovation grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) which provides funding to college and university faculty members to support research and development projects with technology transfer potential.
VPRI provided support to Kassiri and his team by connecting them with Ontario-based associations, which helped secure letters of support for their NSERC grant application from CEOs interested in commercializing the technology. This also helped them build a potential network of clinicians to test the technology. The IP Innovation Clinic provided support by conducting a prior art search, performing market research, and assisting with patent filing.
With the research groundwork laid and a functional prototype in hand, the team is now advancing towards developing a market-ready version of their technology that has the potential to change the way we live.
“We are already in discussions with clinics and medical device companies who are interested in testing the prototype or potentially integrating the technology into their devices,” said Kassiri.
About York University:
York University is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.
Media Contact: Emina Gamulin, York University Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca
