Prof. Ramana Vinjamuri

(UMBC, Brain-Computer Interface)

Abstract:
Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a dangerous disease that affects an individual’s brain and behavior. This leads to uncontrolled use of illicit drugs, alcohol, excessive use of legal drugs or other addictive behaviors. The prevalence (51.5 million adults with SUD and mental illnesses, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) 2019) and the rate of increase (6% from 2018 to 2019) of SUD in the US deem it a rapidly growing epidemic. Furthermore, during COVID19 pandemic, one of the serious challenges faced by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) is the treatment of homeless individuals with SUD because of their compromised immune systems. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates that the total expenditure of drug-related complications exceeds 500 billion dollars when healthcare costs and job losses are considered. Despite this growing epidemic and its subsequent consequences, there are limited management and treatment options, pharmaco-therapies, and psychosocial treatments available for SUD. To this end, there is a need for new and improved treatments and management of SUD as emphasized in the strategic plan of the NIDA. The goal of our multidisciplinary team is to develop “Pneuma™”, an integrated portable neurotechnology that is capable of management of SUD using wearable biosensors, including electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalography (EEG) sensors. The system detects and modulates stress, a key trigger in substance abuse. This system will have four major components – (1) Based on well documented negative effects of stress in SUD, detection of stress and emotional states recorded using EEG and EDA sensors (2) Machine-learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for improving the detection of stress, emotion and behavior (3) Neurofeedback using EEG sensors to measure, manage and modify brain activity and thus, associated behavior and (4) A smartphone App that can provide a user-friendly and personalized graphical user interface for the neurofeedback. The proposed technology with its unique ability to influence the brain and the behavior will impact the individuals with this serious epidemic in a most immediate and personal manner. Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a dangerous disease that affects an individual’s brain and behavior. This leads to uncontrolled use of illicit drugs, alcohol, excessive use of legal drugs or other addictive behaviors. The prevalence (51.5 million adults with SUD and mental illnesses, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) 2019) and the rate of increase (6% from 2018 to 2019) of SUD in the US deem it a rapidly growing epidemic. Furthermore, during COVID19 pandemic, one of the serious challenges faced by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) is the treatment of homeless individuals with SUD because of their compromised immune systems. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates that the total expenditure of drug-related complications exceeds 500 billion dollars when healthcare costs and job losses are considered. Despite this growing epidemic and its subsequent consequences, there are limited management and treatment options, pharmaco-therapies, and psychosocial treatments available for SUD. To this end, there is a need for new and improved treatments and management of SUD as emphasized in the strategic plan of the NIDA. The goal of our multidisciplinary team is to develop “Pneuma™”, an integrated portable neurotechnology that is capable of management of SUD using wearable biosensors, including electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalography (EEG) sensors. The system detects and modulates stress, a key trigger in substance abuse. This system will have four major components – (1) Based on well documented negative effects of stress in SUD, detection of stress and emotional states recorded using EEG and EDA sensors (2) Machine-learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for improving the detection of stress, emotion and behavior (3) Neurofeedback using EEG sensors to measure, manage and modify brain activity and thus, associated behavior and (4) A smartphone App that can provide a user-friendly and personalized graphical user interface for the neurofeedback. The proposed technology with its unique ability to influence the brain and the behavior will impact the individuals with this serious epidemic in a most immediate and personal manner.

Bio:
Ramana Vinjamuri, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) at UMBC. He is the Director of Sensorimotor Control Laboratory or Vinjamuri Lab that houses 4 PhD students, 6 MS students and 6 UG students. He received his PhD in 2008 and a postdoc (2008-2012) in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) from the University of Pittsburgh. He received the Mary E Switzer Merit Fellowship from NIDILRR in 2010. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2019. He received a supplement to this award in 2022 to explore commercialization and collaboration of resultant technologies in global markets in Southeast Asia. He received the NSF Industry University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) Planning grant in 2020. He is well connected with industry in BCI and is in the process of establishing a neurotechnology center called BRAIN at UMBC. To this end, he held a successful BRAIN industry planning meeting in Sep 2022. This improved the industry network and potential commercial partners for PneumaTM. In June 2022 the PI received an SBIR award from NIDILRR to partner with Delsys, Inc on another technology that started as a publication in Vinjamuri Lab strengthening relations with this potential commercial partner. His other notable commercialization and innovation grants are from the United States India Science and Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF) and the New Jersey Health Foundation (NJHF). His team has developed and tested a benchtop prototype system that can record EEG and EDA activity under simulated stress and no stress conditions. In July 2022, the PI (Vinjamuri) was invited as a visiting scientist at NIDA collaborating on ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to improve stress detection. In December 2022, the PI was recognized as a Technologist in the 2023 Maryland New Venture Fellowship program (similar to I-Corps node program). He worked with business analysts and mentors to conduct preliminary market analysis and customer discovery in Spring 2023, prior to winning the pitch competition in May 2023 at the conclusion of the fellowship.