The Future of Personalized Music-Based Neurorehabilitation
One of Outlier's principal aims is to advance the science of personalized precision music medicine. With support from the National Institute of Aging and the National Academy of Medicine our team has been developing NeuroSync: a music-based augmented reality platform for neurorehabilitation of Alzheimer's disease.
Advancing the Science of Music
About NeuroSync
NeuroSync is a data-driven, Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT)-based augmented reality (AR) neurorehabilitation platform which will improve the ability of clinicians, therapists, and caregivers to offer affordable, personalized neurological care to AD patients. NeuroSync features a structured, program of immersive, evidence-informed neurorehabilitative games, puzzles, and exercises that use analytics captured on the user’s performance and interactions with musical movement to progressively adapt its interventions in response to the user’s medical needs and evolving abilities. This innovative platform is rationally designed to combine nostalgia, music creation, movement, bioinformatics, and machine learning (ML) to: a)stimulate neuroplasticity and prime the user’s brain for learning, b) target measurable stabilization and/or improvements in clinical metrics for functional independence and quality of life (executive functions, mobility, communication, and behavior), and c) collect, analyze, and display analytics that can be used by practitioners and care providers alike to easily understand patient progress and tailor treatments to improve care.
NeuroSync is powered by Outlier’s patent pending “smart instrument” technology - The Human Element (THE) – an adaptive generative engine for personalized, motion-based musical compositions and sonification. THE combines computer vision (CV)-tracked user motion with generative music, ML, and adaptive motion-to-music mappings to afford users an immersive, user-friendly musical experience, creating “error-free” versions of nostalgic compositions from gestures and motion. THE is used to personalize NeuroSync’s NMT-based interventions to the user’s song/genre preferences and mobility range and to collect pioneering motion-to-music data that can be analyzed for correlations to positive patient outcomes. This adaptive platform aims to bridge the gap between therapies traditionally administered in clinical settings with those that can be safely used at-home, offering a groundbreaking and affordable new approach that empowers users to “play” their way to better health.
Motivation
Societal need: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by adverse neuropathological changes, including excessive buildup of β-amyloid plaques and tau fibrils, neurotransmitter depletion, and chronic inflammatory neurovascular damage. These degenerative changes compromise neural connectivity and the body’s ability to repair brain tissue, obstruct the elimination of neural toxins, and inhibit the delivery of vital nutrients to the brain. The culmination of this damage is a fatal brain atrophy that destroys the brain’s ability to communicate with the body, robbing its victims of their memories, independence, and identity.
There is a broad and urgent need for innovation in AD treatment to reduce the economic, emotional, and social burdens this disease places on communities across the nation. Currently, there are no drugs that cure AD, and contemporary medical treatments are largely ineffective at delaying the disease, providing only marginally adequate symptom management. Recent insights into the pathogenesis of AD however, suggest therapies that enhance the plasticity of neural circuits will help usher in the next-generation of treatments to slow and/or reverse its progression. As a result, there is rising momentum for evidence-based methods that stimulate neuroplasticity, coupled with treatment approaches that leverage this neurobiological phenomenon to support positive AD patient outcomes and healthy longevity.
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