Devices and methods are disclosed that treat a medical condition, such as migraine headache, by electrically stimulating a nerve noninvasively, which may be a vagus nerve situated within a patient's neck. Preferred embodiments allow a patient to self-treat his or her condition. Disclosed methods assure that the device is being positioned correctly on the neck and that the amplitude and other parameters of the stimulation actually stimulate the vagus nerve with a therapeutic waveform. Those methods comprise measuring properties of the patient's larynx, pupil diameters, blood flow within an eye, electrodermal activity and/or heart rate variability.

An information processing apparatus includes a first determination unit, a second determination unit, and a presentation unit. The first determination unit determines, based on biometric information of a speaker and a non-speaker, creativities of the speaker and the non-speaker, according to different indices. The second determination unit determines, according to the creativity of the speaker and the creativity of the non-speaker, a creativity of a group including the speaker and the non-speaker. The presentation unit presents the creativity of the group.

A system and method for monitoring nerve activity in a subject. The system includes a plurality of electrodes placed in proximity to skin of the subject, an amplifier electrically connected to the electrodes and configured to generate a plurality of amplified signals corresponding to electrical signals received from the subject through the electrodes, and a signal processor. The signal processor applies a high-pass filter to the amplified signals to generate filtered signals from the amplified signals, identifies autonomic nerve activity in the plurality of filtered signals; and generates an output signal corresponding to the filtered signals. The high-pass filter attenuates a plurality of the amplified signals having frequencies that correspond to heart muscle activity during a heartbeat.

A wearable appliance or a set of wearable appliances, arranged for being worn by a person on the person's body comprises: one or more cold applicators, one or more biosignal sensors for measuring biosignals indicative of physiological stress experienced by the person and control circuitry connected to the one or more cold applicators and configured so as to activate them in response to detection, based upon the measured biosignals, that the person experiences elevated physiological stress. According to a further aspect, the invention proposes a communication system comprising a wearable appliance (24) or a set of wearable appliances (24, 26) and one or more mobile terminals (22) comprising each a human interface device with one or more output devices (40, 46, 50) for indicating the level of stress to a second person holding the mobile terminal and with one or more input devices (44, 50) for receiving input from that person. The system translates input received by the one or more mobile terminals into a control signal provided to the one or more cold applicators (18).

A method comprising: (a) obtaining information about a period of a fluctuation cycle in an autonomic nerve of a user; and (b) repeating, in a same period as the period of the fluctuation cycle in the autonomic nerve, a process that includes inducing a point of gaze of the user to move in a direction away from the user and inducing the point of gaze of the user to move in a direction to approach the user, according to the obtained information. The period of the fluctuation cycle in the autonomic nerve is a period of a fluctuation cycle in a diameter of a pupil of the user, a period of a fluctuation cycle in a heart beat of the user, or a period calculated from the period of the fluctuation cycle in the diameter of the pupil and the period of the fluctuation cycle in the heart beat.

An intravascular catheter for nerve activity ablation and/or sensing includes one or more needles advanced through supported guide tubes (needle guiding elements) which expand to contact the interior surface of the wall of the renal artery or other vessel of a human body allowing the needles to be advanced though the vessel wall into the extra-luminal tissue including the media, adventitia and periadvential space. The catheter also includes structures which provide radial and lateral support to the guide tubes so that the guide tubes open uniformly and maintain their position against the interior surface of the vessel wall as the sharpened needles are advanced to penetrate into the vessel wall. Electrodes near the distal ends of the needles allow sensing of nerve activity before and after attempted renal denervation. In a combination embodiment ablative energy or fluid is delivered from the needles in or near the adventitia to ablate nerves outside of the media while sparing nerves within the media.

Presentation of materials such as advertising and marketing materials is evaluated and/or dynamically modified using neurographical data. User images, video, and audio, etc. are analyzed when a user is presented with stimulus materials. User data such as a user image is matched with a neurographical aggregate to identify user information and emotional state. The neurographical aggregate identifies actions and/or additional stimulus material for presentation to the user. User information and emotional state also allow evaluation of the presented materials.

Compositions, systems, devices, and methods for performing precise chemical treatment of tissues are disclosed. Systems, devices, and methods for administering a chemical agent to one or more a precise regions within a tissue mass are disclosed. Compositions, systems, devices, and methods for treating targeted regions within a tissue mass are disclosed. Systems, devices, and methods for identifying, localizing, monitoring neural traffic in the vicinity of, quantifying neural traffic in the vicinity of, and mapping neural traffic near targeted regions within a tissue mass are disclosed.

The present disclosure discusses a nerve cuff that includes a thin-film elastic mesh with an integrated array of electrodes. The nerve cuff can wrap around a human carotid artery or other tissue to stimulate the autonomic nervous system. The nerve cuff can include a housing that secures the mesh to the carotid artery or other tissue.

A novel technique for analyzing a biological state is provided. A body trunk biological signal (aortic pulse wave) extracted from the back of a body trunk is differentiated twice. By using a resultant second derivative waveform, a waveform component of a maximum amplitude of a low frequency appearing as a result of switch of an amplitude from attenuation to amplification in transition from a contracting phase to a diastolic phase of a ventricle is specified in each period of the second derivative waveform. Inflection points are specified that appear before and after the maximum amplitude waveform component. A biological state is analyzed using information about each of the inflection points. The two inflection points obtained from a reference form of the second derivative waveform of the aortic pulse wave substantially agree in time phase with first heart sound and second heart sound (or an R wave and a T wave in an electrocardiogram) indicating the dynamic state of a cardiovascular system. This enables analysis of a biological state.