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Globally, an estimated two billion adults suffer from mental health problems and the number is growing at an alarming rate. More effective and scalable tools for identifying, treating and monitoring mental health are therefore essential.

The DIGIMIND project aims to develop reliable indicators of an individual's psycho-physiological well-being based on brain and autonomic nervous system measurements and their machine learning-based classification.
In the future, such information could be used to develop technological solutions linked to a digital care pathway. These solutions would enable remote monitoring, making treatment and individualised care guidance more accessible.

– Currently, various measures of the state of the nervous system, including in natural situations, are being collected, but their relevance to mental state is largely unknown. The aim is to find reliable indicators that can be measured with consumer-grade equipment, instead of so-called heavy-duty imaging devices such as MEG or MRI," says Tiina Parviainen, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥.

Project cooperation benefits businesses

Parviainen is leading the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥'s part of the project. The other project leaders are Lauri Parkkonen, Professor of Neuroimaging Methods at Aalto University, and Aapo Hyvärinen, Professor of Computer Science, especially Machine Learning, at the University of Helsinki. The two universities and the researchers responsible for the project have a long-standing collaboration in the application of neuroscience, brain imaging, signal processing and machine learning methods.

Parviainen says the collaboration will bring benefits to both research and business. With funding from Business Finland, the project is part of Tietoevry Oyj's roadmap. Roadmaps are the vision of the driving companies on what solutions, technologies and competences are needed to achieve defined missions.

Representatives of the four companies participating in the project will bring to the project knowledge from their areas of expertise, including information systems, software and physiological measurement technologies. The project is also expected to create an ecosystem of research institutions and companies, which will allow the concept to be further developed into a more concrete reality.

– The project will create important competences at the interface between human sciences and technological know-how. In the short and long term, the collaboration will provide significant benefits for the international export and business development of Finnish companies," says Parviainen.

The three-year DIGIMIND (Digital Indicator of Mental State) project involves the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Tietoevry Oyj, Polar Electro Oy, Aisti Health Oy and Vigofere Oy. The Business Finland funding awarded is in the form of the partnership model Co-Innovation.

Further information:

Tiina Parviainen, JYU
tiina.m.parviainen@jyu.fi, tel. +358408053533