A low-cost reusable EEG patch for detection and use of digital sleep biomarkers associated with AD/ADRD - This project will develop and evaluate the Soft Electronic Neurophysiological Assessment Patch Sensor (SENAPS), a compact, reusable, soft dry-electrode forehead EEG/EOG system designed for unsupervised, multi-night assessment of sleep neurophysiology in older adults. Sleep EEG measures such as slow-wave activity, spindle density, K-complex rate, and slow-oscillation–spindle coupling are associated with cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD), but conventional polysomnography is burdensome and poorly suited to frequent longitudinal use. Existing wearable EEG systems also vary in physiological fidelity, usability, data accessibility, and reliance on participant-owned smartphones or home internet. A practical platform is therefore needed that can reliably acquire and process multi-night sleep EEG under real-world home conditions. We will develop an integrated SENAPS system consisting of a reusable forehead patch and cellular charging cradle. The cradle will automatically retrieve recordings, assess signal quality, process sleep macroarchitecture and microarchitecture, store data locally, and securely transfer raw and processed data without requiring a participant-owned smartphone or home Wi-Fi. System-level testing will evaluate recording duration, signal integrity, battery and memory performance, data-transfer reliability, and recovery from common technical failures. We will evaluate SENAPS in 20 adults aged 65 years or older who will complete seven consecutive nights of home recording. Outcomes will include successful-night yield, analyzable EEG duration, self-application, adherence, comfort, skin tolerance, technical support requirements, and the number of nights needed to obtain stable participant-level sleep EEG measures. In a subset of participants, SENAPS will also be compared with simultaneous polysomnography and an existing wearable EEG system to assess physiological agreement, artifact burden, usable recording time, and operational performance. Successful completion will produce an integrated and field-tested platform, standardized acquisition and quality assessment procedures, empirical minimum-night requirements, and comparative evidence defining the strengths of SENAPS for repeated home use. These results will provide the technological and measurement foundation for a subsequent longitudinal study evaluating sleep neurophysiology and derived risk measures in relation to cognitive and AD/ADRD-related change.
