Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Migraine is a chronic, debilitating neurological disorder that affects millions of people. Common migraine symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, as well as elevated sensitivity to light and/or sound. Its profound physical, psychological and social impact have led Cerebral Diagnostics, a Toronto-based company specializing in imaging of real-time brain activities, to use cutting-edge imaging tools created in house to develop a novel way of imaging the abnormal brain activities in migraine patients. The imaging procedure includes a multi-channel, non-invasive electroencephalograph (EEG) recording and inverse source localization/visualization software. This project proposes a way to investigate the abnormal brain activity before, during and after a migraine episode. By carefully examine the data collected through a previous independent migraine study, we aim to combine sophisticated signal processing algorithms (such as compressed sensing and cluster analysis) and state-of-the-art data acquisition methods to generate quantitative and qualitative measurements for migraine detection, diagnosis and longitudinal monitoring. The results of this study will not only provide insights to the symptoms of migraine and generate new dimensions for migraine characterization, but also aims to open ways to identify, evaluate and select electrical signal-based pathological biomarkers in migraine diagnosis. Cerebral Diagnostics, and the Sheridan College research team propose to use this as the starting point for creating a safe, low cost, and reliable tool for migraine diagnosis and prognosis.