ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. It can be diagnosed in childhood and even last into adulthood.
Symptoms may involve having trouble focusing, having impulsive behaviors, acting hyper-energetic and more.
The causes and risk factors for ADHD are unknown, but current studies suggest that genetic reasons may be involved.
ADHD is treated with a combination of behavior therapy and medication. For instance, behavioral intervention in the classroom.
The treatment involves close monitoring, follow-ups, and quick adaptability.
The combination of fNIRs and Virtual Reality (VR) allows teachers to assess brain activity in class, in return, determine an effective and individualized learning plan for students.
Potential applications:
Educational application - putamen activation decreases ADHD
Clinical application - neuroimaging data might help bring imaging into the clinical future. It could be utilized to provide neurofeedback to shift brain activation to a more neurotypical range.
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases which affects 50 million people who are potentially learners worldwide.
The main symptom of epilepsy is seizures, which involve uncontrolled jerking and shaking, losing awareness, collapsing and other discomforts.
Some known causes of epilepsy are brain dysfunction, neurologic diseases, and genetic disorders. In the scope of neuroscience, seizure is caused by excessive electrical discharge from the central nervous system.
The most widely-accepted treatments for epilepsy are medication and surgery. Since we don't know when and where will epilepsy happen, this limits learners' capacity in engaging in learning activities, such as physical exercise or hyper-focused brainstorming sessions.
Mobile devices and mobile applications can collaboratively assess brain activities. A good example is a smartphone brain scanner that detects abnormal electrical discharge, the application can quickly analyze the potential causes and protect the learner from further pain. Also, giving enough response time to access medication or to request medical care attention. Mobile neurotechnologies not only benefit learners physically from suffering pains, but also protect their self-esteem instead of embarassing themselves in public.
Potential applications:
Structual imaging - identify anatomical abnormalities associated with seizure focus & identify the underlying etiology of seizures
Functional imaging - provide complimentary information with the assistance of Magnetic Resonant Imaging (MRI) and Computered Tomography (CT)
Mobile sensing application - stimuli presentation, signal recording and online processing could be incorporated in mobile device like smartphones. This would require sufficient technical advancement and sophiscated mobile neuroimaging techniques.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave. ASD involves a syndrome of poor social communication abilities in combination with repetitive behaviors or restricted interests.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the spectrum includes autism disorder, Asperger disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). The primary causes of ASD are unknown, but studies indicate that genetics and environmental factors can lead to ASD.
Autism learners may very likely face great learning challenges, fortunately, some autism learners show great talents in certain areas of study, like arts or science.
Early treatment for ASD is essential because proper care and services can help them learn basic learning skills and build on their strengths. Then, medication is also used to cope with specific symptoms, like irritability, aggression, hyperactivity, repetitive behavior and attention problems. Moreover, there are also behavioral, psychological, and educational interventions. Unfortunately, medication and interventions cannot completely eradicate ASD, they only lessen the ASD symptoms to a certain degree, but are not all-times effective. Therefore, many ASD learners are either placed in special education or home school.
Mobile neuroimaging technologies provide an opportunity to further characterize ASD with quantitative imaging makers of brain structure and function.
Potential applications:
Structural neuroimaging - use imaging methods to exmaine brain structure (morphology or structural connectivity); measure brain volumes (gray and white matter volume). The brain volumes may change as ASD conduct learning activities, the results may be helpful to discover ASD learners instincts and talents. Which in turns, help them better fit in the environment.
Task-related functional imaging - investigate brain activities during the performance of tasks. Functional imaging can be performed during the performance of tasks or during rest. For ASD learners, tasks involve social and language funtion. This could be very handy for them to smoothly adapt to social settings and communicate.
Wearable devices - use wearble devices to collect various type of physiological data; and build wearable sensor systems with data exchange possibilities. These serves to provide extensive data on ASD learners' brain activities, thus contributing to the further studies of ASD treatment and ASD learning processes.