ProBrain intelligent platform: a solution for the assessment and improvement of listening skills, memory and attention, applicable to health care, education and corporate training

Abstract

Considering that the ears hear, but that the brain listens, the central auditory processing (CAP) is a continuous function of the central nervous system, which is related to the analysis of the sounds captured by the ears in tasks such as locating the sound source, or to pay attention to a sound and to ignore others, as well as to associate meanings and organize the information heard. About 20% of the population has some CAP disorder, with potential manifestations in (i) the speech and language development, (ii) the learning, (iii) the professional performance, (iv) the communication, and (v) the social integration. Such manifestations make it difficult for individuals (i) to understand what they hear in noisy environments, (ii) to focus on information while there are competitive sound stimuli, (iii) to correctly understand how they pronounce speech sounds, both in their own language or in the learning of a foreign language, and (iv) to bring important Impacts on a child's school life, which even without cognitive problems, may have difficulty to understand what the teacher teaches. If left untreated, this individual becomes an adult with potential impacts on his professional performance, either because of poor understanding of what he or she hears, or the difficulty in focusing on a task when the environment has sonorous competition. Recent literature data suggest that the high risk of aging-related hearing loss, which is accompanied by CAP disorders, increases fivefold the risk of dementia. The hearing training develops the compromised skills and enables the individuals to improve their understanding of what they hear and, thus, better guide their actions in the world. AudBility is a platform that enables the screening of ten CAP mechanisms and skills, and Afinando o Cérebro ("Tuning the Brain") is a web platform that brings together 126 online activities to develop listening, memory and attention skills. The objective of the project is to develop the ProBrain Intelligent Platform, which will use artificial intelligence to integrate the two existing platforms, thus offering a product to be used as an auxiliary instrument for diagnosis, prevention and / or therapeutic intervention in contexts that require good hearing skills, attention and memory. By integrating the two platforms intelligently, it will be feasible to present the combination of games for the best possible evolution of an individual's hearing ability and analyze the results. The efficacy of the product will be verified by comparing the behavioral and electrophysiological responses of the users, before and after the use, as evaluated by the product itself and by a traditional equipment specific for this purpose. Through the application of the artificial intelligence algorithm, the ProBrain Intelligent Platform will offer autonomy, reliability and greater accessibility in the intervention of CAP disorders, which are a problem of great impact to the patient's life, but which did not yet found adequate management democratization in education and health care, both privately and as public policy. This project will result in an unprecedented product in the market, with the potential to reach not only patients with CAP disorders undergoing speech therapy, but also to support the learning of school-age children and youth and to improve employee performance in certain companies. (AU)