This project will develop and test a miniature, intermediate range, narrow band telemetry system for auditory evoked response (AER) and electroencephalography (EEG) evaluations. This will allow AER and EEG evaluations to be performed without having the subject tethered with wires. The opportunity for successful intervention in language and cognitive disorders would increase if investigators could identify potential problems earlier in a child's development. Early detection would allow resources to be focused on remediation when chances for success are greatest: in the first months or years of life. Currently, intervention does not occur until the child has a demonstrated record of failure, typically at age 8-10. Effectively improving children's cognitive capabilities will lead to greater scholastic success which should lead to increased skill sets, greater self esteem and, in turn, reduced poverty. AER has been found to be the most accurate technique to predict at birth the language and cognitive skills that the infant will have three years later. AER data taken at birth accounts for 78 percent of the total variance in predicting McCarthy scores at age three. One of the major problems of AER testing of infants is that they focus on the EEG wires and tend to pull on them. Artifacts make the data unusable, increasing the cost of testing or invalidating the test altogether. A wireless AER transmitter will eliminate this problem, allowing infants to be tested with greater reliability. The EEG/AER Telemetry system will have numerous advantages including: 1) electromagnetic induction and interference due to wire movement can be eliminated, thus reducing artifacts; 2) use of the AER transmitter will eliminate the problem of electrode movements or detachment because children pull on the wires; 3) infants may be more easily held by their mother, relaxing the infant and further reducing motion based artifacts; 4) infants and children may be evaluated for learning disabilities in more natural settings and while interrelating with siblings and parents without being constrained; 5) up to 250 different transmitters can operate in close proximity without interfering; 6) epileptic and other individuals who require constant monitoring may move about their home or hospital ward within a radius of seven hundred meters unrestrained; and 7) animals may be monitored without the fear of the electrode wires becoming entangled and pulled.
