(SD2022-066) Simultaneous assessment of afferent and efferent visual pathways using multi‐focal steady‐state visual evoked potenital method to facilitate the diagnosis and prognosis of individuals with neurological diseases.

Abstract

Researchers from UC San Diego have developed a patent-pending wearable device for concurrently assessing afferent and efferent visual functions. The invention details novel mobile brain-computer interfacing methods and systems for concurrently assessing afferent and efferent visual functions.

Full Description

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a leading cause of neurological disability. An autoimmune disorder, MS targets the optic nerves, brain and spinal cord, primarily damagingthe myelin sheaths of neurons in these structures with secondary neurodegeneration. Both the afferent and efferent visual pathways are strongly impacted by MS pathology. Over 50% of MS patients will present with acute optic neuritis during their disease course, with 20% having optic neuritisas their first symptom. Up to 70% of patients also experience efferent visual dysfunction, including ocular misalignment, nystagmus and abnormal eye-tracking. Both afferent and efferent functions can be precisely measured to aid diagnosis, estimate treatment responses, and follow the course of neurodegeneration/disability accumulation. Unfortunately, the equipment and analytical capacity to make these measurements are typically only found in special care facilities, and even then, few centers can accurately quantify both afferent and efferent dysfunction. There is no current availability to make these measurements in acute care centers such as emergency room, urgent care, and hospital floors.

Applications

With this invention, both afferent and efferent functions may be precisely measured to aid diagnosis, estimate treatment responses, and follow the course of neurodegeneration/disability accumulation. There is no current availability to make these measurements in acute care centers (ER, urgent care, hospital floors). The disclosed technology can address these gaps via the application of an integrated wearable device capable of capturing both high-resolution afferent function and eye-tracking measurements in the MS population.

Additional applications include highly prevalent diseases of brain trauma/concussion, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s.

Advantages

Among other benefits, the disclosed methods and systems can facilitate research on the correlations between the afferent and efferent measures and support the development of new and novel indices of multiple sclerosis (MS) -related visual dysfunction.

State Of Development

Intellectual Property Info

Patent rights are available for commercial licensing.

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/37/2b/b8/012e18a2758ffc/WO2023039572A1.pdf

Related Materials

• Nakanishi M, Miner A, Jung TP, Graves J. Novel Moving Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential Stimulus to Assess Afferent and Efferent Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2023 Feb 8 - 02/08/2023