corticalmetrics insights

Aging and brain plasticity: what causes the decline?

June 29, 2018

I’ve been in the research field for close to 40 years now (easily 40 if you count my years as an undergraduate biology major, when I was probably more interested in non-academic pursuits, but that is another story), and throughout that tenure, a question that has bothered people – as well as researchers – is why do people age at different rates? Why do some people age gracefully into their late 90s and others struggle through their 60s? As we began to do translational research (i.e., that brand of research

Fractal patterns in the brain

June 27, 2018

Why the Brain Gauge can detect even the smallest neurological changes

One of the chapters of my dissertation discussed the functional organization of mini-columns - the brain's smallest functional groups of neurons. Each mini-column is made up of a vertical array that runs from Layer 1 (outermost cells) to Layer 6 (innermost cells) in the cortex. Though these groupings can be difficult to study - a typical minicolumn is about 1/5 the thickness of a human hair - they can give crucial insight into the overall organization of the

Case Study: Getting back on your feet

June 25, 2018

Disclaimer: This article was adapted from a paper orginally published in the Journal of Physiotherapy Research (King et al. 2018). For privacy concerns the name of the patient has been changed.

Sacha didn’t feel so good.

A few days earlier, she had fallen off her stationary bike and clipped the side of her head on an unfortunately placed ceramic planter, opening a neat cut above her right ear. But after a quick trip to the emergency room and a handful of stitches, her wound seemed to be taken care

What is the overall corticalmetric score?

June 21, 2018

If you are a Brain Gauge user, you've probably noticed the overall corticalmetric score. This comprehensive measure is calculated from all the tests that were taken in a single test session. If that is a sufficint explanation, then read no further.

When we first started developing cortical metrics – all the different measures collected by the Brain Gauge (and also the name of the company... we realize that can be confusing!) – we wanted to create a unique metric that could summarize the brain profile of each individual. We believe that it

The Need for Speed

June 18, 2018

People like to go fast. We like fast cars and fast lanes. We want to “Earn money fast!” and “Lose weight fast!” It’s why we blow our paychecks on the latest phones and the hottest laptops. As every third grader in a playground footrace will tell you, it’s fun to be the fastest.

That’s why we’re never surprised when Brain Gauge users seem most interested in their Speed metric. When we test college students, the football players always want to record their scores so they can

Autism, GABA and the Brain Gauge: the history of our scientific efforts in the field.

June 15, 2018

The Brain Gauge methods predicted GABA deficits in autism that were later validated with medical imaging

After having many discussions with people who are interested in the Brain Gauge technology, I became increasingly aware that a vast majority assume the Brain Gauge was designed exclusively for assessing traumatic brain injury (TBI) and concussion. Although we have received support from the Office of Naval Research for the development of the Brain Gauge as a standardized concussion tool, the development of the device began as a means for studying alterations in brain

Alzheimer’s and Diabetes: Cause or Effect?

June 13, 2018

Alzheimer’s is often called “diabetes type 3” because there appears to be a correlation between the two disorders.

After first identifying amyloid β plaques and tau tangles in the brain of a deceased patient in the early 1900’s, Alois Alzheimer was careful to not infer that these structures had caused the dementia in the patient. Until recently, most of the research (at least by drug companies) has been aimed at finding ways to reverse the accumulation, or at least stop the spread of these structures. While drugs have

The Timing Perception Measure

June 09, 2018

Timing perception is derived from your duration discrimination task. This is the test that asks “Which stimulus lasted longer?” The first trial of the task (during training) delivers a 650 msec duration stimulus to one finger and subsequently a 500 msec duration stimulus to the other (a 150 msec difference). Each time the person taking the test identifies the finger that received the longer stimulus correctly, the difference between the two durations on the next trial is reduced. Most people track down to a difference limen of 35-60 msec, and

Telemedicine and Remote Testing with Brain Gauge

June 08, 2018

A new way to monitor patient’s health from afar.

Considering all the inconveniences of going to a doctor’s office, it’s no wonder the use of telemedicine (the remote delivery of health care services using technology) is growing rapidly. Between the hassles of making an appointment, office wait times, and being around sick patients, why go to the office if you have the option to see the doctor from the comfort of your own home?

Smart phones, video conferencing, and online platforms increase the accessibility of health care

Pain – does anyone know how to treat it?

June 06, 2018

Or maybe a better question is – Did anyone ever successfully treat it?

One of the unique things about the somatosensory system that separates it from the other sensory modalities is that there are pain receptors in the skin that project to the somatosensory cortex. All of the painful stimuli we encounter is modulated through the sense of touch. This has been well known for decades, if not centuries, and this concept did not escape medical practitioners - the idea ofremoving this part of the brain to eliminate pain surfaced in