DoCBox aims to develop a new toolbox of fast and easy-to-implement behavioural, neuroimaging and neurophysiological assessments to accurately assess and diagnose patients suffering from a disorder of consciousness (DoC), allowing for a more comprehensive examination and better management of this vulnerable population. This toolbox will respond to the society needs regarding the evaluation of patients with DoC as it appropriately responds to the rigid time constraints of clinical settings, which are one of the biggest limitations for an accurate diagnosis. This project aims to enhance interdisciplinary research on DoC via an exchange of knowledge and international scientific cooperation to translate and validate the tools (e.g., behavioral scales, pipelines) that will be included in this toolbox. This collaboration between the partners underpins the credibility and feasibility of three research objectives: 1) Provide new bedside assessment tools to refine and optimize the detection of consciousness signs in post-comatose patients; 2) Identify the most accurate neurophysiological and neuroimaging biomarkers of consciousness states and develop novel easy-to-use software to implement these analyses in clinical settings; 3) Engage informal and formal caregivers in the diagnosis of DoC patients. This will ultimately result in guidelines and policy recommendations for improvement of DoC patients’ diagnosis and thus care. The proposed exchange program aims to bring together a large international and interdisciplinary consortium of 17 partners (EU and non-EU countries) including researchers and other professionals with all necessary skills, permitting to tackle the challenges faced by professionals when studying and caring for DoC patients. The benefits for Europe are the intersector and interdisciplinary massive data collected by this consortium, which will allow a major progress in the understanding of (disorders of) consciousness.

The grand challenge of this project is to create the basis for a paradigm shift in the way music is performed and experienced, by leveraging the new creative possibilities offered by the emerging Musical Metaverse. The consortium aims to achieve this ambitious challenge by means of i) a socio-cognitive breakthrough, by gaining a deep understanding of the emerging needs and concerns of contemporary musicians and audiences via collaborative design activities and neuro-physiological measurements; ii) a technological breakthrough, by developing radically novel concert platforms and devices that can exchange information among each other via ultra-reliable low-latency wireless networks, with privacy and security constraints; iii) a musical breakthrough, by creating novel concert formats that exploit the technological and socio-cognitive breakthroughs. This project uses an interdisciplinary methodology that combines Human-Computer Interaction, Engineering, Cognition, and Music, drawing from the scientific excellence of the partners. Industrial partners will provide know-how for proof of concept prototypes. Through this disruptive approach, the project will provide a pipeline to the technological development of a new class of musical interfaces and Musical Metaverse ecosystems, whose features will go substantially beyond current systems. The proposed approach aspires to effect a step-change in the design of musical interfaces and systems to musically interact online, resulting in a potentially high economic impact on the music industry. The envisioned technological advancements for the musical domain will provide key solutions for true real-time collaborative activities in the Metaverse in general. The project involves theoretical and experimental aspects, and is a high-impact endeavour from which basic science, EU industry and society can benefit.

The pathological alterations of neurological function (e.g., stroke, trauma, neurodegeneration, epilepsy, neuropsychiatric diseases, chronic pain) are commonly associated with alterations in brain rhythms and activity patterns. There is an urgent clinical need for treatments that can precisely control and restore neural activity, taking advantage of state-of-the-art technological developments in a variety of fields including nanotechnology, nano- and microelectronics, novel materials, brain science, clinical neurology, and computational modelling. META-BRAIN (MagnetoElectric and Ultrasonic Technology for Advanced BRAIN modulation) brings together seven expert partners in these fields with the aim of achieving precise spatiotemporal control of brain activity using magnetoelectric nanoarchitectures that can be polarized by non-invasive, remote magnetic fields. This novel principle of brain activity control will minimize the amplitude of the required magnetic fields, be wireless, and have enhanced spatial resolution from single neurons to cortical areas. We will develop a model-driven fabrication of the coils and monitor the effects on brain function with arrays of graphene microtransistors that uniquely allow full-band recording, integrating all elements in a closed loop. As an alternative to remote brain stimulation we will also use novel ultrasonic technologies. The META-BRAIN control paradigm will be systematically studied in pre-clinical systems from individual neurons to the full brain. All developments and experiments will be carried out in conjunction with theoretical models that will simulate, quantify, and predict optimal arrangements and patterns for the desired output. Translation to humans will be evaluated with our clinical partners, and a detailed dissemination and exploitation plan will be developed by two expert company partners, one of which has extensive expertise in the fabrication of brain interface devices with a worldwide distribution capability.

Imaging the brain activity is fundamentally important for many brain-related scientific disciplines. Among the non-invasive neuroimaging strategies, Electroencephalography (EEG) from scalp potentials is one of the primary. In EEG the neuroninduced electric potential is measured by using electrodes on the patient’s scalp. The skull however, highly resistive, shields EEG recordings limiting the spatial resolution. The standard way to avoid skull shielding effects is to invasively implant EEG electrodes under the skull (ECoG) or in the brain cortex (StereoEEG), in both cases after trepanning the patient’s skull. Scalp EEGs are noninvasive but lack spatial imaging accuracy. ECoG and StereoEEG are highly accurate but require skull trepanation and they image only a limited part of the brain. There is the need for increasing the resolution of scalp EEG providing the same level of accuracy of invasive EEGs. This will be the grand challenge which CEREBRO will achieve by conceiving the first ever existing EEG contrast medium, able to provide imaging of the entire brain and in a non-invasive way.

The overall goal of this project is to develop a radically new diagnostic and therapeutic device for neurological applications which combines a highly innovative ultrasound component for brain imaging and focused stimulation of brain regions with advanced electrophysiological measurements of neural activity. First goal of the project is the development of a novel ultrasound (US)-based functional imaging method that, in conjunction with electroencephalography (EEG), allows for high spatiotemporal resolution examination of brain activity. While EEG itself yields best data from neural tissue close to the skull, the US component is designed to deliver images from deeper brain regions. The second pillar of the devices function is focused US brain stimulation. Based on the possibility to localize abnormal activity, the neuromodulation component of the novel device can be guided to focal stimulation of selected brain regions, which can be further developed into a closed-loop design. The full envisioned system is a versatile tool that combines EEG-sensors and US transceivers in a wearable headset. The project foresees the development of hard- and software as well as algorithms to integrate the information from both modalities into functional neuroimaging with unpreceded spatiotemporal resolution. Beyond the technical realization, this project includes a proof of concept study to evaluate and demonstrate practical applicability in healthy participants and in patients with epilepsy, during clinical routine examination, cognitive, and sensory stimulation, including test-retest validation. The new device will reduce the time to examine and treat neurological patients and the cost thereof. The ability to perform better diagnosis via accurate imaging, targeted neurostimulation, and neuromodulation with a cost-effective, non-invasive device will have transformative effects on treatment options for neurological diseases and stimulate new lines of research in cognitive neuroscience