Dr. Luca Pollonini, who joined Zouridakis' team in September as a research associate, said he hopes one day the combination of the EEG and NIRS will more accurately diagnose brain damage in hospitals and on the battlefield.

"What I envision is a very portable device that, by combining two or more techniques, can be used for example for rapid assessment of traumatic brain injury," said Pollonini, who collaborates with Nirox, an Italian company established in 2005 to commercialize NIRS technologies. "If I rush into the ER because my kid fell off his bike and I want to be sure he is fine, the only way now to assess brain injury is to run a CT scan, which delivers radiation to the body, or a MRI scan, for which you have to be immobile. With pain and emotional distress emerging after a traumatic episode, it is hard for everybody to stay still during these examinations," Pollonini said.

Full caption:
In 2002, George Zouridakis was instrumental in developing the first truly portable EEG equipped with 256 data-recording sensors, or electrodes. Built by BioSemi in The Netherlands, it employs active electrodes, which are loaded with microchips, to eliminate environmental noise.
Courtesy: University of Houston.

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