Type of project: Translational, Mind and Body and Personalized Medicine

Principal Investigator: Dr. Sean Maw

Institutions Affiliated: Mount Royal University

Student: Amy Varner (UGRAD)

Awards funded to project: 1

Background: Mild traumatic brain injuries (concussions) are a common injury, yet there is little effective diagnostic tools available as most rely on self-reported symptoms or clinician judgement. Electroencephalography (EEG) is the technique that measures “brainwaves” and offers a potential diagnostic option explored in this project.

Findings: An extensive literature review reveals that an EEG based approach to concussion diagnosis would not only be feasible, but potentially superior to physician judgement. The next phase of this project is to initiate a clinical trial to explore the diagnostic utility of EEG based concussion detection.

Implications: Neurology and psychiatry are both seeking biomarkers for various disorders. This project could establish EEG based measures as a biomarker for concussions and open the door for other EEG based biomarkers for other disorders.