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A local neuroscience company wants to take its testing technology out into the field to help more easily determine if children have learning disabilities.
Burlington-based Boston Neurofeedback Center PC is already in the business of applied neuroscience, performing learning assessments and treating depression. Now the company has a device-based system that can reduce the time, cost and expense of testing for learning problems in children, explained David Myer, head of research at the company. The firm is looking to raise $3 million from investors to launch the new tool.
The system, dubbed the Boston Educational Assessment Team (BEAT), relies on a portable computing device about two inches high that measures brain activity through an electroencephalogram (EEG) test. The device collects information from up to four subjects at a time, who wear special helmets equipped with electrodes. The subjects answer a series of questions and the device records the electrical activity of their brains. “We see how the brain talks to itself,” said Myer.
The data is later uploaded into a PC or other computer for analysis using existing statistical models. Analysts can use the information to detect the likelihood of the subject having an attention problem or other learning disability. Boston Neurofeedback sees a market for doing student testing, which is worth multiple millions of dollars, said Myer. However, there is also the need to do such testing in prisons or for the military.
Boston Neurofeedback has filed a patent for the system and expects to complete preliminary testing and get 510k clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by year’s end. Myer anticipates going to market in two years.
One expert, however, remained skeptical of the system. Ellen Braaten, director of the learning and emotional assessment program at Massachusetts General Hospital, said it was unclear what type of assessment capability such a device could offer to educators, or how exactly it would reduce the testing required to detect learning problems.
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