Medical Research
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Scientists have found a way to efficiently engineer new thyroid cells from stem cells. The discovery, is the first step toward engineering new human thyroid cells in order to better study and treat thyroid diseases.
The thyroid is a gland in the middle of the lower neck. The thyroid produces hormones that reach every cell, organ, and tissue to help control metabolism.
Thyroid diseases are common conditions in which the gland is either overactive and produces too much hormone (hyperthyroidism), or produces too little (hypothyroidism).
Most thyroid disorders are chronic or life-long conditions that can be managed with medical attention. However, approximately 60 percent of cases are undiagnosed.
Undiagnosed thyroid diseases can lead to serious conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, infertility, and osteoporosis - A condition that results in reduced bone density and increases the fragility of bones.
In their study, the researchers found a way to coax genetically modified embryonic stem cells from mice to develop into thyroid cells.
They discovered that there is a “window of opportunity” for doing this efficiently that occurs during cell development.
As they guided the laboratory-cultured embryonic stem cells through various stages of development, the researchers switched a gene called Nkx2-1 on and off for short periods.
Researchers believe that the discovery is the first step toward an effective human stem cell protocol for creating research models and new treatments for thyroid diseases. The principle may also apply to other cell types, they add.
In their paper, they note that stem cells hold great promise as a way to mass produce differentiated cells for research. However, a major roadblock to achieving high yields has been “the poor or variable differentiation efficiency of many differentiation protocols.”
More than two thirds of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, who were treated with a combination of high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation, have been in remission for 5 years, according to the results of a small clinical trial.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system, (brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves). In some studies, the patient will become paralyzed or blind, while in others they may feel numbess to their limbs.
A new study suggest that one-time high-dose immunosuppressive therapy (HDIT), followed by cell transplantation (HCT), may lead to long-term remission for patients with RRMS.
The goal of HDIT/HCT is to remove all MS-causing cells from the body.
The therapy involves collecting a patient’s blood-forming stem cells, before treating them with high-dose chemotherapy to destroy their immune system. The blood-forming stem cells are then returned to the patient, effectively “resetting” their immune system.
In 2014, Dr. Nash and colleagues reported the 3-year results of their phase II clinical trial for HDIT/HCT. The trial involved 24 patients with RRMS aged between 26 and 52. All patients were using currently available medications for their condition, but none were experiencing a reduction in relapses or disease progression.
For the trial - funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) - each patient received HDIT/HCT. The team found that almost 80 percent of patients experienced no relapses, worsening of disability, or new brain lesions in the 3 years following treatment.
Importantly, none of the patients had used any RRMS medications since treatment with HDIT/HCT.
Reported side effects of HDIT/HCT included cytopenias (a reduction in blood cells) and infections. Three patients died during the 5-year follow-up, but the researchers say that their deaths were not related to their treatment.
While further studies are needed to better determine the safety and efficacy of HDIT/HCT for the treatment of RRMS, Dr. Nash and team are encouraged by the results so far.
“If these findings are confirmed in larger studies, HDIT/HCT may become a potential therapeutic option for patients with active relapsing-remitting MS, particularly those who do not respond to existing therapies.”
Dr. Daniel Rotrosen, director of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation, NIAID
New research has uncovered a link between low adherence to the Mediterranean diet and an increased risk of ADHD.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by poor attention, impulsive behavior, and hyperactivity.
The Mediterranean diet is typically high in fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains, nuts, and legumes, and low in red meats, eggs, dairy products, and sweets.
A Mediterranean diet is considered by many as the optimal diet for good health, with studies linking this eating pattern to reduced risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and some types of cancer.
To determine whether this diet may be effective against ADHD, Pulido and team analyzed the data of 60 children and adolescents aged between 6 and 16 who had been diagnosed with ADHD. These children were matched by age and sex to 60 children without ADHD.
The dietary patterns of the two groups were assessed using food frequency questionnaires, and the team used the KIDMED test to calculate the children’s adherence to a Mediterranean diet.
Compared with children who had high adherence to a Mediterranean diet, those with a low adherence were more likely to have received a diagnosis of ADHD, the researchers report.
Furthermore, the team identified a higher prevalence of ADHD among children who consumed high amounts of candy and sugary drinks, but low amounts of fatty fish.
While the researchers say that their study cannot conclude that a Mediterranean diet protects against ADHD, they say that their findings do indicate that poor dietary patterns may be linked to the disorder.
Researchers have found that children born to mothers who consume large amounts of licorice while pregnant may be more likely to develop behaviors associated with ADHD.
Study co-author Katri Räikkönen, from the University of Helsinki in Finland, and colleagues hypothesize that glycyrrhizin (the active ingredient in licorice) may interfere with fetal neurodevelopment by increasing levels of “the stress hormone” cortisol.
The researchers recently reported their findings in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Though licorice is often hailed for its medicinal benefits - such as the alleviation of peptic ulcers and canker sores - studies have indicated that the plant-derived product has some downsides.
A study reported by Medical News Today in November, for example, associated licorice intake with reduced copiousness for women, and studies have also suggested that licorice consumption during pregnancy may lead to poorer birth outcomes, such as a lower birth weight.
For this latest study, Räikkönen and team investigated how licorice intake during pregnancy might influence cognitive functioning and behavior in offspring.
The researchers explain that licorice’s active ingredient, glycyrrhizin, is a strong inhibitor of placental 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11βHSD2), which is an enzyme known to block the production of glucocorticoids such as cortisol.
As such, glycyrrhizin may increase glucocorticoid production, and research has suggested that prenatal exposure to excess glucocorticoids is associated with psychiatric illness.
To test this theory, Räikkönen and colleagues analyzed the data of 378 children, aged 13 on average, who were born in Helsinki, Finland, in 1998.
Data on the glycyrrhizin intake of the children’s mothers during pregnancy were gathered. Low intake was defined as under 249 milligrams of glycyrrhizin per week, and high intake was defined as more than 500 milligrams of glycyrrhizin - the equivalent of around 250 grams of licorice.
The team used the Child Behavior Checklist to assess the presence of psychiatric problems among the children, and neuropsychological tests were used to evaluate their cognitive function.
Compared with children born to mothers who had a low intake of glycyrrhizin during pregnancy, those born to mothers with a high intake of glycyrrhizin showed poorer performance in memory tests.
Furthermore, children of mothers who consumed large amounts of glycyrrhizin during pregnancy were more likely to have behaviors associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Additionally, the researchers found that girls started puberty earlier if their mothers consumed high amounts of glycyrrhizin while pregnant.
Although further studies are needed in order to determine the precise mechanisms by which maternal glycyrrhizin intake might impact the cognition and behavior of offspring, the team speculates that glycyrrhizin blocks 11βHSD2, leading to an increase in cortisol - the so-called stress hormone. This can cause harm to the developing fetus.
Commenting on what their findings indicate, the researchers say that:
“Licorice consumption during pregnancy may be associated with harm for the developing offspring.”
The team adds that expectant mothers should be warned about the possible harms of consuming products containing glycyrrhizin.
Cold and flu season is in full force, so what treatments are most effective?
Research shows that cough medicine often isn’t any more effective than taking a placebo. The American Chemical Society is the latest to address this issue and are working to spread awareness about it.
Cough syrups are intended to do things like suppress the cough reflex and help with decongestion, but there’s very little evidence that these cough syrups are effective at stopping or reducing coughs, according to multiple reviews.
Dr. Kimbre Zahn, an IU Health physician, said there are safer alternatives than cough medications and they do tend to be more helpful.
“Probably things that we think about depend a little bit on your symptoms, but things like inhaled nasal saline rinses, doing vapor rub, honey, as long as the child is over the age of one, really has been shown to be more effective than these cough and cold medications,” Dr. Zahn said.
She also warns against zinc, vitamin c, and echinacea saying those also have not shown to be effective in preventing illness or helpful with treatment.
Dr. Zahn said if you do purchase an over-the-counter medication, look for ‘DM’ on the box.
“This is a cough suppressant. It actually works by suppressing the cough reflex. It does have some actual benefit when it comes to cough, so if you’re really inclined to go get a medication that would be what I would choose,” Dr. Zahn said.
And while there’s no guarantee cough syrups will cure your cough, research does show it can help you get a better night’s sleep.
If you think this research indicates maybe a larger dose is the way to go, the American Chemical Society is offering a strict warning. Large doses can lead to serious health complications and even death, especially for children. Thousands of children 12 years old and under are taken to emergency rooms each year because of cough medicine overdoses, according to the ACS.
Smokers with depression who successfully quit smoking using stop smoking services may see an improvement in their mental health, according to new research, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in Annals of Behavioural Medicine.
Researchers at Kings College London and the Charles University in Prague who studied people attending a stop smoking clinic in the Czech Republic, found that successful quitters had a considerable improvement in their depression.
And two-thirds (66.3 per cent) of those who had moderate or severe depression when smoking described no or minimal symptoms during a one-year follow up.
The researchers also found that all those who received the specialist behavioural support and medication provided by the clinic, were more likely to remain smoke free for a year if they went back for repeat visits.
But they noted that people with depression were still less likely to quit successfully than those without. This highlights that different groups can benefit to different extents from the same support, and suggests that people with mental health problems need extra help.
Smoking rates among people with mental health conditions are more than double those of the general population (approximately 40% vs. 20%). It’s estimated that of the 9.6 million adult smokers in the UK, around three million have a mental health condition.
Smoking is the single biggest factor contributing to a lower life expectancy associated with a mental health condition – a decrease of about 10-20 years compared to the general population.
Dr Leonie Brose, a Cancer Research UK fellow based at King’s College London and senior author of the publication, said: “Our study shows that stop smoking services can be very effective at supporting people with depression, and that increased visits greatly improve the success of quit attempts.
“The findings also suggest that giving up smoking may improve depressive symptoms, improving mental as well as physical health.
“While there’s been an overall fall in smoking rates in recent decades, there hasn’t been the same decline among people with mental health problems.
“We hope that this research will help boost mental health services and stop smoking services in the UK giving effective support and medication to those who need it most.”
This new study highlights just how vital stop smoking services are. In England, smokers who use similar services are around three times more likely to quit successfully than those using no support at all.
The research is published as stop smoking services across England face continued budget cuts.
Local councils run the services, but funding comes from Westminster. Year on year, cuts to the Public Health Grant from HM Treasury have placed considerable strain on local councils, and budgets for stop smoking services have been repeatedly slashed since 2013.
Alison Cox, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer prevention, said: “This study draws attention to a vulnerable group who need more specialist support in their attempts to give up smoking.
“When it comes to tobacco-related illness, reducing the dramatic difference in the health of social groups is a really important issue.
“Because of this, it’s vital to protect funding for specialist stop smoking services, which remain the most effective route to quitting.”
A team of local researchers have discovered a previously unknown cellular defect in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, and identified a sequence of pathological events that can trigger or accelerate premature death of certain neurons in the brain seen in this disease.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, will provide a better understanding and further research towards a possible cure of Parkinson’s disease, which is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement and other vital functions in nearly one million people in the United States. Despite advances in understanding the causes of familial forms of this disease, the most prevalent idiopathic form of Parkinson’s disease remains a mystery.
Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers discovered that the cells of people with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease have a previously unknown defect in the function of a specific PLA2g6 protein, causing dysfunction of calcium homeostasis that can determine whether some cells will live or die.
“Idiopathic or genetic dysfunction of calcium signaling triggers a sequence of pathological events leading to autophagic dysfunction, progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons and age-dependent impairment of vital motor functions typical for Parkinson’s disease,“ explained corresponding author Victoria Bolotina, PhD, professor of medicine at BUSM.
“Discovery of this new mechanism associated with human Parkinson’s disease and our ability to mimic this pathology in a novel genetic model opens new opportunities for finding a cure for this devastating neurodegenerative disease,” she added.
(Source: bumc.bu.edu, via neurosciencestuff)
Scientists from the Gladstone Institutes have discovered that salsalate, a drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, effectively reversed tau-related dysfunction in an animal model of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Salsalate prevented the accumulation of tau in the brain and protected against cognitive impairments resembling impairments seen in Alzheimer’s disease and FTD.
Salsalate inhibits tau acetylation, a chemical process that can change the function and properties of a protein. Published in Nature Medicine, the researchers revealed that acetylated tau is a particularly toxic form of the protein, driving neurodegeneration and cognitive deficits. Salsalate successfully reversed these effects in a mouse model of FTD, lowering tau levels in the brain, rescuing memory impairments, and protecting against atrophy of the hippocampus—a brain region essential for memory formation that is impacted by dementia.
“We identified for the first time a pharmacological approach that reverses all aspects of tau toxicity,” says co-senior author Li Gan, PhD, an associate investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. “Remarkably, the profound protective effects of salsalate were achieved even though it was administered after disease onset, indicating that it may be an effective treatment option.”
Although tau has been a target in dementia research for some time, there are no tau-targeted drugs available for patients. Additionally, how the protein builds up in the brain, causing toxicity and contributing to disease, still remains largely a mystery.
By investigating post-mortem brains with Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Gan’s team found that tau acetylation is one of the first signs of pathology, even before tau tangles are detectable. The acetylated form of tau not only marked disease progression, it also served as a driver for tau accumulation and toxicity. What’s more, in an animal model of FTD, when tau was acetylated, neurons had reduced ability to degrade the protein, causing it to build up in the brain. This in turn led to atrophy in the region and cognitive impairment in the mice on several different memory tests.
The Gladstone scientists discovered that salsalate can inhibit the enzyme p300 in the brain, which is elevated in Alzheimer’s disease and triggers acetylation. Blocking tau acetylation in this way enhanced tau turnover and effectively reduced tau levels in the brain. This reversed the tau-induced memory deficits and prevented loss of brain cells.
“Targeting tau acetylation could be a new therapeutic strategy against human tauopathies, like Alzheimer’s disease and FTD,” says co-senior author Eric Verdin, MD, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. “Given that salsalate is a prescription drug with a long-history of a reasonable safety profile, we believe it can have immediate clinical implications.”
The scientists say a clinical trial using salsalate to reduce tau levels in progressive supranuclear palsy, another tau-mediated neurological condition, has already been initiated.
(Source: gladstone.org, via neurosciencestuff)
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Keir Starmer, Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU today said:
We have before us a short and relatively simple Bill, but, for the Labour party, this is a very difficult Bill.
We are a fiercely internationalist party. We are a pro-European party. We believe that through our alliances we achieve more together than we do alone. We believe in international co-operation and collaboration. We believe in the international rule of law. These beliefs will never change.
That is why we campaigned to stay in the EU. We recognise that the EU is our major trading partner and that the single market and customs union have benefited UK businesses and our economy for many years.
We recognise more widely the benefits of collaborative working across the EU in fields of research, medicine, technology, education, arts and farming. We also recognise the role that the EU plays in tackling common threats, such as climate change and serious organised crime. We share values and identity with the EU.
But we failed to persuade. We lost the referendum.
Yes, the result was close. Yes, there were lies and half-truths—none worse than the false promise of an extra £350 million a week for the NHS. Yes, technically the referendum is not legally binding. But the result was not technical; it was deeply political, and politically the notion that the referendum was merely a consultation exercise to inform Parliament holds no water.
When I was imploring people up and down the country to vote in the referendum and to vote to remain, I told them that their vote really mattered and that a decision was going to be made. I was not inviting them to express a view.
Although we are fiercely internationalist and fiercely pro-European, we in the Labour party are, above all, democrats.
Had the outcome been to remain, we would have expected the result to be honoured, and that cuts both ways. A decision was made on 23 June last year to leave the EU.
Two thirds of Labour MPs represent constituencies that voted to leave; one third represent constituencies that voted to remain. This is obviously a difficult decision. I wish the result had gone the other way—I campaigned passionately for that—but as democrats we in the Labour party have to accept the result. It follows that the Prime Minister should not be blocked from starting the article 50 negotiations.
That does not mean, however, that the Prime Minister can do as she likes without restraint from the House—quite the opposite: she is accountable to the House, and that accountability will be vital on the uncertain journey that lies ahead.
She fought to prevent the House from having a vote on the Bill until she was forced to do so by the Supreme Court last week. She resisted Labour’s calls for a plan and then a wider White Paper until it became clear that she would lose any battle to force her to do so. Just before Christmas, she was resisting giving the House a vote on the final deal—a position that she has had to adjust.
That is why the amendments tabled by the Labour party are so important.
They are intended to establish a number of key principles that the Government must seek to negotiate during the process, including securing full tariff and impediment-free access to the single market.
They are intended to ensure that there is robust and regular parliamentary scrutiny by requiring the Secretary of State to report to the House at least every two months on progress being made in the negotiations and to provide documents that are being given to the European Parliament.
The amendments would also require the Government to consult regularly the Governments of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland throughout the Brexit negotiations. I have recognised on numerous occasions the specific issues and concerns of those living in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and I support the proposition that they should be absolutely consulted throughout the process and that their interests should be borne in mind.
The amendments would also ensure that this House has the first say, not the last say, on the deal proposed at the end of the article 50 negotiations.
We also support amendments in relation to workplace rights and environmental rights, and we will be making the case that the legal state of EU nationals should be resolved before negotiations take place.
I recognise the Government’s position on EU nationals and the work done to try to ensure that there is a reciprocal arrangement, but that has not worked, and now the Prime Minister should act unilaterally to give assurance to EU nationals living in this country. I am sure that all hon. Members will have had, in their surgeries, EU nationals in tears over the uncertainty of their situation. I have seen it at every public meeting I have attended on the topic and at every surgery. I understand the constraints, but we must now act unilaterally to secure their position.
Taken together, the amendments would put real grip and accountability into the process, and the Government should welcome them, not reject them out of hand.
It is important to remember what the Bill does and does not do.
It empowers the Prime Minister to trigger article 50—no more, no less. It is the start of the negotiating process, not the end.
It does not give the Prime Minister a blank cheque—and here I want to make a wider point that has not been made clearly enough so far in any of our debates: no Prime Minister, under article 50 or any other provision, can change domestic law through international negotiations.
That can only be done in this Parliament. If she seeks to change our immigration laws, she will have to do so in this Parliament in primary legislation. If she seeks to change our tax laws, she will have to do so in this Parliament in primary legislation. If she seeks to change our employment laws, our consumer protection laws or our environmental laws, she will have to do so in this Parliament in primary legislation. If she seeks to change our current arrangements in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, she will have to do so in Parliament in primary legislation.
When the Secretary of State last week said there would be many votes on many pieces of legislation in the next few years, he was not wrong. In each of those votes, at every twist and turn, Labour will argue that jobs, the economy and living standards must come first. We will argue that all the workers’ rights, consumer rights and environmental protections derived from EU law should be fully protected—no qualifications, limitations or sunset clauses.More broadly, Labour will be arguing for a strong, collaborative future relationship with the EU. In her Lancaster House speech, the Prime Minister said that she does not
“seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave”.
That is short-sighted, as we are now finding in relation to Euratom. Why would we want to be outside the European Aviation Safety Agency, which certifies aircraft before they are allowed to fly?
Why would we want to be outside the European Medicines Agency, which ensures that all medicines in the EU market are safe and effective? Why would we want to be outside Europol and Eurojust, which are agencies that work closely together in the prevention and detection of serious crime and terrorism? The same goes for the European Environment Agency and Euratom.
We challenge the Prime Minister on these fronts and ask that consideration be given to finding ways to ensure that we stay where we can within those agencies, for the obvious benefits that they bring, and we will absolutely challenge any suggestion that the Prime Minister has any authority whatsoever to rip up our economic and social model and turn the UK into a tax-haven economy.
I come back to the vote on this Bill.
It is a limited vote: a vote to allow the Prime Minister to start the article 50 process. It is not a vote on the outcome, nor is it a vote on wider issues, which will fall to be voted on separately, but it is a vote to start the process.
I know that there are some colleagues on the Benches behind me who do not feel able to support the Bill. I respect their views, just as I respect the views of constituents who feel the same way.
I also understand and recognise the anxiety of so many in the 48% who voted to remain about their future, their values and their identity. They did not vote themselves out of their own future, and their views matter as much now as they did on 23 June last year.
I hope that the respectful approach that I have tried to adopt to colleagues and to the anxiety among the 48% is reflected across the House and that we will see a good deal less of the gloating from those who campaigned to leave than we have seen in the past.
It is our duty to accept and respect the outcome of the referendum, but we remain a European country, with a shared history and shared values.
It is also our duty to fight for a new relationship with our EU partners that reflects our values, our commitment to internationalism and our commitment to an open and tolerant society.
Above all, it is our duty to ensure an outcome that is not just for the 52% or for the 48%, but for the 100%.
That we will do.
(via labourpress)
Cyber security and authentication have been under attack in recent months as, seemingly every other day, a new report of hackers gaining access to private or sensitive information comes to light. Just recently, more than 500 million passwords were stolen when Yahoo revealed its security was compromised.
Securing systems has gone beyond simply coming up with a clever password that could prevent nefarious computer experts from hacking into your Facebook account. The more sophisticated the system, or the more critical, private information that system holds, the more advanced the identification system protecting it becomes.
Fingerprint scans and iris identification are just two types of authentication methods, once thought of as science fiction, that are in wide use by the most secure systems. But fingerprints can be stolen and iris scans can be replicated. Nothing has proven foolproof from being subject to computer hackers.
“The principal argument for behavioral, biometric authentication is that standard modes of authentication, like a password, authenticates you once before you access the service,” said Abdul Serwadda a cybersecurity expert and assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Texas Tech University.
“Now, once you’ve accessed the service, there is no other way for the system to still know it is you. The system is blind as to who is using the service. So the area of behavioral authentication looks at other user-identifying patterns that can keep the system aware of the person who is using it. Through such patterns, the system can keep track of some confidence metric about who might be using it and immediately prompt for reentry of the password whenever the confidence metric falls below a certain threshold.”
One of those patterns that is growing in popularity within the research community is the use of brain waves obtained from an electroencephalogram, or EEG. Several research groups around the country have recently showcased systems which use EEG to authenticate users with very high accuracy.
However, those brain waves can tell more about a person than just his or her identity. It could reveal medical, behavioral or emotional aspects of a person that, if brought to light, could be embarrassing or damaging to that person. And with EEG devices becoming much more affordable, accurate and portable and applications being designed that allows people to more readily read an EEG scan, the likelihood of that happening is dangerously high.
“The EEG has become a commodity application. For $100 you can buy an EEG device that fits on your head just like a pair of headphones,” Serwadda said. “Now there are apps on the market, brain-sensing apps where you can buy the gadget, download the app on your phone and begin to interact with the app using your brain signals. That led us to think; now we have these brain signals that were traditionally accessed only by doctors being handled by regular people. Now anyone who can write an app can get access to users’ brain signals and try to manipulate them to discover what is going on.”
That’s where Serwadda and graduate student Richard Matovu focused their attention: attempting to see if certain traits could be gleaned from a person’s brain waves. They presented their findings recently to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Biometrics.
Brain waves and cybersecurity
Serwadda said the technology is still evolving in terms of being able to use a person’s brain waves for authentication purposes. But it is a heavily researched field that has drawn the attention of several federal organizations. The National Science Foundation (NSF), funds a three-year project on which Serwadda and others from Syracuse University and the University of Alabama-Birmingham are exploring how several behavioral modalities, including EEG brain patterns, could be leveraged to augment traditional user authentication mechanisms.
“There are no installations yet, but a lot of research is going on to see if EEG patterns could be incorporated into standard behavioral authentication procedures,” Serwadda said.
Assuming a system uses EEG as the modality for user authentication, typically for such a system, all variables have been optimized to maximize authentication accuracy. A selection of such variables would include:
The features used to build user templates.
The signal frequency ranges from which features are extracted
The regions of the brain on which the electrodes are placed, among other variables.
Under this assumption of a finely tuned authentication system, Serwadda and his colleagues tackled the following questions:
If a malicious entity were to somehow access templates from this authentication-optimized system, would he or she be able to exploit these templates to infer non-authentication-centric information about the users with high accuracy?
In the event that such inferences are possible, which attributes of template design could reduce or increase the threat?
Turns out, they indeed found EEG authentication systems to give away non-authentication-centric information. Using an authentication system from UC-Berkeley and a variant of another from a team at Binghamton University and the University of Buffalo, Serwadda and Matovu tested their hypothesis, using alcoholism as the sensitive private information which an adversary might want to infer from EEG authentication templates.
In a study involving 25 formally diagnosed alcoholics and 25 non-alcoholic subjects, the lowest error rate obtained when identifying alcoholics was 25 percent, meaning a classification accuracy of approximately 75 percent.
When they tweaked the system and changed several variables, they found that the ability to detect alcoholic behavior could be tremendously reduced at the cost of slightly reducing the performance of the EEG authentication system.
Motivation for discovery
Serwadda’s motivation for proving brain waves could be used to reveal potentially harmful personal information wasn’t to improve the methods for obtaining that information. It’s to prevent it.
To illustrate, he gives an analogy using fingerprint identification at an airport. Fingerprint scans read ridges and valleys on the finger to determine a person’s unique identity, and that’s it.
In a hypothetical scenario where such systems could only function accurately if the user’s finger was pricked and some blood drawn from it, this would be problematic because the blood drawn by the prick could be used to infer things other than the user’s identity, such as whether a person suffers from certain diseases, such as diabetes.
Given the amount of extra information that EEG authentication systems are able glean about the user, current EEG systems could be likened to the hypothetical fingerprint reader that pricks the user’s finger. Serwadda wants to drive research that develops EEG authentication systems that perform the intended purpose while revealing minimal information about traits other than the user’s identity in authentication terms.
Currently, in the vast majority of studies on the EEG authentication problem, researchers primarily seek to outdo each other in terms of the system error rates. They work with the central objective of designing a system having error rates which are much lower than the state-of-the-art. Whenever a research group develops or publishes an EEG authentication system that attains the lowest error rates, such a system is immediately installed as the reference point.
A critical question that has not seen much attention up to this point is how certain design attributes of these systems, in other words the kinds of features used to formulate the user template, might relate to their potential to leak sensitive personal information. If, for example, a system with the lowest authentication error rates comes with the added baggage of leaking a significantly higher amount of private information, then such a system might, in practice, not be as useful as its low error rates suggest. Users would only accept, and get the full utility of the system, if the potential privacy breaches associated with the system are well understood and appropriate mitigations undertaken.
But, Serwadda said, while the EEG is still being studied, the next wave of invention is already beginning.
“In light of the privacy challenges seen with the EEG, it is noteworthy that the next wave of technology after the EEG is already being developed,” Serwadda said. “One of those technologies is functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which has a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than an EEG. It gives a more accurate picture of brain activity given its ability to focus on a particular region of the brain.”
The good news, for now, is fNIRS technology is still quite expensive; however there is every likelihood that the prices will drop over time, potentially leading to a civilian application to this technology. Thanks to the efforts of researchers like Serwadda, minimizing the leakage of sensitive personal information through these technologies is beginning to gain attention in the research community.
“The basic idea behind this research is to motivate a direction of research which selects design parameters in such a way that we not only care about recognizing users very accurately but also care about minimizing the amount of sensitive personal information it can read,” Serwadda said.