NEURO4HOME
Home-Based EEG for Early Alzheimer’s Detection
Clinical and Home Validation of Next-Generation EEG for Alzheimer’s Biomarkers
Neuro4Home is an innovation project led by Starlab Barcelona in collaboration with Neuroelectrics and ACE Alzheimer Center Barcelona, focused on enabling early detection of Alzheimer’s disease from home through advanced neurotechnology. Running from May 2025 to May 2026, the project addresses one of the major challenges of our time: how to move from late-stage diagnosis of cognitive decline to accessible, continuous, and early brain health monitoring.
At the core of Neuro4Home is the development and validation of portable EEG systems that can be easily used outside clinical environments. The project systematically evaluates different EEG devices—particularly new-generation systems with dry electrodes—to determine whether they can deliver clinically meaningful data while being simple, fast, and comfortable enough for real-world use at home.
A key component of the project is a clinical study involving patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), both with and without Alzheimer’s disease amyloid biomarkers. The objective is to assess whether the neurophysiological patterns previously identified using traditional EEG systems with gel electrodes can be replicated using these new dry-electrode technologies. Achieving this would represent a major step forward, enabling a drastic reduction in test duration—from approximately one hour to just 15 minutes—while maintaining clinical reliability. This would significantly improve scalability and accessibility in both primary care and home settings.
In parallel, Neuro4Home includes a real-world home-use pilot, where volunteers independently performed EEG recordings in their own homes. This phase focused not only on evaluating signal quality in uncontrolled environments, but also on understanding the user experience, including ease of use, comfort, and adherence.
Insights from this pilot were used in an iterative design process to refine both the hardware setup and the digital interface guiding users through the experiments, ensuring that the system is intuitive and accessible even for non-expert users.
On the data analysis side, the project leverages advanced signal processing and AI-based normative models developed by Starlab. These models enable the detection of subtle deviations in brain activity associated with early cognitive decline, while accounting for individual variability such as age, gender, and socio-cultural background—supporting a more personalized and equitable approach to brain health assessment.
Beyond technological validation, Neuro4Home aims to deliver practical guidelines and recommendations for integrating EEG-based monitoring into primary care and home-care services, paving the way for scalable, preventive, and patient-centered models of care.
The project is funded under the RETECH (Redes Territoriales de Especialización Tecnológica) program, within the Salut Digital Intel·ligent initiative (Line 2: Sensorization Projects) promoted in Catalonia.
