Wireless brain monitoring stimulation tools to investigate neurodegenerative diseases

There is growing evidence that in people with neurodegenerative diseases, like dementia and Parkinson, wide-spread changes in functional brain connectivity occur much earlier than clinically relevant symptoms of the disease. A key requirement in the development of early predictive models as well as novel interventions targeting synaptic and neuronal integrity is the ability to reliably measure brain function in a natural environment during spontaneous behaviour. Existing advanced neuroimaging techniques are only available in a clinical setting, while existing wearable systems do not offer sufficient spatial coverage and resolution for network analysis and suffer from poor signal quality and significant motion artefacts. Additionally, there is interest from the neuroscientific community to investigate novel electrical brain stimulation approaches which may induce neuroplasticity in the brain. This requires novel electrical stimulation circuits that can provide stimulation deeper into the brain and with higher spatial resolution. This PhD aims to develop a wireless and easy-to-operate high-density (HD)-EEG headset (>64channels) suitable for use in an ambulatory setting under natural behaviour, as well as exploring research purposes for 'electrical interference stimulation'.