NERON AI uses novel digital technology to measure brain performance

Toronto-based NERON AI, a startup company, has created a computer-based system that measures brain performance through exercises that test the brain’s neuromotor control – how a person simultaneously moves and thinks.

The system is sensitive enough to spot the onset of dementia years before a standard clinical diagnosis – using an on-screen test that takes about 10 minutes.

And amazingly, the company says that by continuing to use the system – or by pursuing other activities that combine movement and thinking in similar ways – a person with early-stage dementia may be able to slow down the deterioration or even improve their performance.

“It’s a case of use it or lose it,” said Reed Hanoun, CEO of NERON AI, which is seeking to commercialize more than 20 years of research carried out at York University’s Sensorimotor Neuroscience Laboratory.

Hanoun stressed that NERON AI is not itself a diagnostic tool – instead, it can be used as a measurement device by healthcare professionals, from which they can make a diagnosis.

The York University lab, under the direction of Dr. Lauren Sergio, York Research Chair in Brain Health and Gender in Action, found that mild cognitive impairment or early dementia often shows up first through declining motor skills – such as slower movement and coordination when having to move and think at the same time.

And when recovering, whether it’s a person experiencing mild cognitive impairment or an athlete recovering from a concussion, faster progress is made when the individual is given tasks that combine moving and thinking. These joint tasks help build new synapses in the brain.

In a recent York University press release, Dr. Sergio recommends challenging oneself by doing things with the left hand that you’d normally do with the right: “Like brushing your teeth [using your left hand], trying pickleball with your left hand or parallel parking on the opposite side of the road, as they do in the United Kingdom.”

She explained, “Practicing any of these kinds of skills where you’re challenging your brain to think while it’s doing a new activity could actually help counteract decline.”

For its part, NERON AI has incorporated these principles into its products: NERON Dynamics, a measurement and intelligence layer used by professionals, and NERON Connect, the personalized improvement layer for individuals. Together they form a closed loop to measure, understand, and improve.

NERON Connect is downloadable to Apple and Android smartphones.

The NERON AI platform tests the user by asking them to move their finger or cursor on the screen while challenging them simultaneously with other tasks.

“When there are no distractions, it’s easy,” said Hanoun. “But when you’re given, for example, memory tests while you’re moving around the screen, it’s much more difficult.”

The more cognitively challenged a person is to begin with, the more difficult it is to perform well.

Hanoun said the 10-minute test can establish a baseline for the user, and it can be used to measure him or her against peers – by age, sex, activity level and neurological condition.

For example, highly active athletes will normally have higher baselines than sedentary seniors who are 65 or older.

The system asks users to perform tasks that grow progressively more difficult. In doing so, it’s testing how different parts of the brain are communicating with each other.

“We keep adding to the cognitive load,” he said. “We then compare how the brain functions at a high load with the brain at rest.”

The system measures the gap between rest and a high load, which is termed ‘the drop’. A smaller drop means more control is retained under pressure, resulting in a higher score.

From the results, NERON AI creates a 3D model of the how the individual’s brain is performing under load. And as the user-base grows, the AI component of the system is also learning and refining its own assessments of brain performance.

Canada’s Department of National Defence has been an early user of the platform, and Hanoun said several Canadian heath providers have started to assess it.

Moreover, Toronto-area brain clinics are using it to track the brain health of their clients, mainly seniors, and to keep them cognitively engaged.

Hanoun added that a large healthcare system in the United States will be conducting pilot tests of NERON AI this fall. As well, there has been interest from Australia, South Korea and Sweden.