Development of a Head-Mounted Device with Imperceptible Light Stimulation for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease in Daily Life

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19796
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 61:Human informatics and related fields
• Research Institution: Nara Institute of Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kiyokawa Kiyoshi 奈良先端科学技術大学院大学, 先端科学技術研究科, 教授 (60358869)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 森本 壮 大阪大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 寄附講座准教授 (00530198)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: アルツハイマー病 / 光刺激治療法 / 無知覚フリッカ / ウェアラブル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Currently, a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is attracting attention: a light stimulation therapy that presents light stimuli blinking at approximately 40 Hz. In this study, we propose a device that presents low-stress light stimuli in the peripheral visual field with the aim of developing a device that can provide light-stimulation therapy with high treatment continuity. As a result of comfort evaluation and EEG analysis experiments to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed device, it was confirmed that the proposed device can stimulate the 40 Hz component of the EEG, which is considered to have therapeutic effects, with a higher therapeutic persistence than conventional light-stimulation devices.

Free Research Field

ウェアラブル

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究ではアルツハイマー病患者に対する低ストレスの光刺激装置の開発に取り組んだ。従来の40Hzストロボ光に代わり，Invisible Spectral Flicker (ISF) を用いることで，患者への負担を軽減しつつ同等の治療効果が期待できることを示した。本研究の成果は，アルツハイマー病の非薬物療法の選択肢を広げ，患者や介護者の負担軽減につながることが期待される。ISFを用いた光刺激装置の実用化に向けた更なる研究が進められれば，アルツハイマー病患者の治療と生活の質の向上に大きく寄与すると考えられる。