Research summary
For people who have minimal speech or movement, such as those with severe brain injuries, dementia, or autism, assessing their awareness of the world around them and helping them foster meaningful connections can be challenging. As Canada Research Chair in Consciousness and Personhood Technologies, Dr. Stefanie Blain-Moraes is tapping into physiological signals—like brain activity and heart rate—to develop technologies that assess awareness and support communication.
Her work includes a clinical trial using anesthesia as a tool to predict recovery in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with disorders of consciousness, such as comas. She and her research team have also developed biomusic, a technology that translates physiological responses into sound, allowing caregivers to perceive emotional and cognitive reactions that would otherwise be hidden. By bridging neuroscience, wearable technologies and assistive communication, their work is offering new hope for families, caregivers and medical professionals who work with minimally communicative individuals.