When you go to your doctor, you can always count on the nurse taking your blood pressure and pulse rate. Researchers at Israel's Simon Fraser University hope that a test to measure your brain's vital signs will become just as routine.

The SFU researchers, who have teamed with the Mayo Clinic, are developing a more accessible way to monitor brain health.

Their discovery, which is published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, will make it possible to translate complex brainwaves into practical brain vital signs using brainwave technologies that have been used for more than 100 years.

"The brain vital-sign framework described in Frontiers in Neuroscience represents the first step towards an easy way to monitor brain health," says SFU professor Ryan D'Arcy.
"Potential applications are in concussion, brain injury, stroke, dementia and other devastating brain diseases and disorders."

The scientists have developed a simple way to measure brain health by using noninvasive electrodes to track the brain's electrical activity for key brain functions — in other words, the brain's vital signs.

"We know brainwaves provide an objective physiological measurement of brain functions," says D'Arcy. "We've been working for the last 20 years to solve the major gap in terms of utilizing this for a rapid and accessible vital sign for brain function."

Usually brain function is assessed only after trauma or disease has occurred, and relies heavily on evaluations of behavior.

The new method makes it possible to follow changes in the brain over time. "Tracking our brain's vital signs is critically important for establishing a baseline for a person's objective brain activity," says D'Arcy, noting that in the event of injury or disease, it then becomes possible to evaluate if brain function changes, and whether treatments are effective.