Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the UK. There are currently over 1.2 million stroke survivors in the UK, and almost two thirds of them leave hospital with a disability. While there is no prompt cure for most of stroke conditions, there are a number of treatments that can improve patients’ long-term health and quality of life. Thus, the regular, long-term monitoring for post-stroke rehabilitation is critical. However, at present, there is no suitable technology that can provide the precision, resolution, patient comfort and motion tolerance necessary to potentially achieve long-term, regular, repeated monitoring and evaluation of post-stroke rehabilitation for patients, particularly outside of a hospital environment.

 

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The emergence of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and its extension Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) provide an alternative means of achieving a wearable, lightweight, low-cost neuroimaging technology. Recently, fNIRS/DOT technologies have been used to measure changes in cerebral autoregulation (by recording spontaneous oscillations in cerebral blood flow) and monitor recovery process for post-stroke rehabilitation so as to offer timely treatment and assess the effects of therapy. Moreover, simultaneous measurement of electrical and haemodynamic activity in the brain (using a combination of fNIRS/DOT and electroencephalography (EEG)) has been used to assess post stroke recovery. Such multimodality studies have necessarily involved mechanical combinations of conventional systems, which restrict the patients to the laboratory/hospital environment. Initial explorations of wearable, integrated fNIRS-EEG devices have been made, but so far the imaging modalities of DOT and EEG have not been integrated into a truly wearable form factor, and prototypes have failed to achieve optimal spatial-temporal resolution and maximum subject comfort.

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The aim of this project is to develop a low-cost, wearable, integrated, modular, neuroimaging technology with a miniaturized profile, a lightweight form factor, multi-modal functionality, optimal spatial-temporal resolution, and sub-centimetre (3D) imaging resolution, which can be practically utilised for long-term, regular, repeated monitoring and evaluation of post-stroke rehabilitation. The proposed technology is also expected to potentially have wide-reaching implications for research in neuroscience and applied psychology, and broad clinical applications.