At the heart of neurotechnology is BCI, or brain-computer interface. Translating a person’s brain activity into external responses has multiple applications, such as stroke recovery or collecting real-time whole-body data from a patient or research subject.
The three tracks in natHACKS apply to the most common BCI use cases. On the research front, that could include “creating tools to more effectively conduct neuroscience research” with both human and nonhuman brains, Redman said.
On the rehabilitation front, it can help answer questions like, “How can we use real-time brain activity to better help someone recover from an injury?” Or if a person has Alzheimer’s disease, “how can we assess the progression of their disease?”
One of the projects emerging from NeurAlbertaTech is Koalacademy, a language learning platform that uses brain waves as input. It started with a question, “How do we use brain activity to increase the performance of someone learning Mandarin from English?” Now it has turned into a research project in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, said Redman, who leads the main development team.
“You type an English word with Mandarin. And you watch the brain’s response. And then you can present the same information later and judge whether that initial brain response indicates learning or non-learning.”
BCI also has its applications in gaming and other forms of recreation. Redman has attempted this with RemBRAINdt, which lets you create art with your brain waves.
“It’s more or less a fun side project,” he said, noting, however, that market research funded by the Edmonton Regional Innovation Network has yielded some promising results. “A lot of throwing stuff at the wall: What do people care? What is left?”
A more serious area of interest for Redman is the treatment of severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.
“A lot of what’s happening now, at least at the treatment end, is hitting the mall with pharmacological interventions. I see BCI as a potential path to a more individualized treatment path,” he said.
A future he is not interested in is one in which some people have implanted computer enhancements.
“As you can probably predict, it will go to the highest bidder,” he said. “The upper echelons of society, the rich and the ultra-rich, will achieve this before anyone else. And so I think that fits into the disparity between different socioeconomic statuses. I’m kind of pushing how do we make this equipment that’s going to be widely available here and now.”
With two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Alberta under his belt, Redman heads to Montreal in the fall to continue his studies in neuroscience at McGill University. But he plans to stay at NeurAlbertaTech and has found Edmonton a great place to start in the field.
“I found the community to be very welcoming,” he said. “And nowadays we’re back to pretty frequent in-person events, which is great. Especially in the healthcare innovator sector, there is quite a wide range of events emerging.”
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