SeeMe: Using Automated Facial Tracking to Detect Voluntary Behavior in Brain Injury

Summary

Objective: This prospective interventional study introduces "SeeMe," an automated, high-resolution computer vision platform designed to objectively quantify microscopic, auditory command-evoked movements in patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Current clinical assessments, such as the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R), rely on subjective human observation and often fail to detect low-amplitude motor responses, potentially misclassifying up to 25% of patients as unresponsive.

Methodology: SeeMe utilizes vector analysis, cross-correlation, and deep neural networks (DNNs) to track individual facial pores and hand movements with sub-millimeter precision (0.5 mm) and high temporal resolution (0.03s). The study will enroll a cohort of 60-80 TBI patients, alongside healthy controls and pharmacologically paralyzed subjects, to validate SeeMe's sensitivity and specificity.

Primary Goals:

1. Validation: Compare SeeMe's detection of voluntary motor recovery against gold-standard clinical examinations (CRS-R).
2. Synchronization: Simultaneously record and time-lock electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocorticography (ECoG) with SeeMe-detected movements.
3. Biomarker Identification: Characterize neural signatures (specifically Beta-band oscillations) associated with the return of voluntary behavior.

Impact: By providing a real-time, objective measure of motor intention and execution, SeeMe aims to identify "Cognitive-Motor Dissociation" (CMD) earlier than current methods, facilitating more accurate prognostications and laying the framework for future closed-loop neuromodulation (e.g., Vagus Nerve Stimulation) to accelerate TBI recovery.

Conditions

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Patients
• Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

SeeMe Multimodal Auditory Command Protocol

A standardized, computer-controlled auditory stimulation (AS) protocol designed to elicit and quantify microscopic motor responses. Protocol Details: Stimuli: Participants are presented with five distinct auditory commands: 1) 'Stick out your tongue,' 2) 'Open your eyes,' 3) 'Show me a smile,' 4) 'Close your hands,' and 5) a neutral control command ('Today is a sunny day'). Timing: Each command is presented 10 times via single-use headphones with a randomized 30-45 second jittered interval between trials to distinguish stimulus-evoked responses from spontaneous arousal. Data Capture: Responses are captured using high-resolution video (Panasonic HC-2000X) at 0.03s temporal resolution and synchronized millisecond-level EEG/ECoG. Analysis: Displacement heatmaps are generated via facial pore vector analysis and classified using a bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network to determine the statistical significance of motor initiation compared to a 15-minute resting base

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• Stony Brook University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

22 Years

Max Age

85 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-03-30

Primary Completion

2029-12-31

Completion

2029-12-31

FDA Device

Yes

Countries

• United States

Study Locations