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Cognitive Testing Patents

Curated summaries of patents covering computerised cognitive assessment systems — the IP landscape behind the devices and methods in cantab, nonverbal-cognitive-tasks, and preclinical-drug-screening. Each entry specifies two dimensions of particular interest:

  1. Target species: Does the patent apply to humans, animals, or both?
  2. Brain recording: Does the system use EEG/ERP/neural recording, or is it purely behavioural (touchscreen/accelerometer/camera)?

One entry per patent (or patent family), each with assignee, inventors, key dates, and a summarising paragraph. Verified against Google Patents records. See visual-prosthesis-patents for the companion patent page in the visual-prosthesis domain.

Patents

US20230320647A1 — Cognitive health assessment for core cognitive functions (McMaster University, 2023)

Assignee: McMaster University · Inventors: John Francis Connolly, Kyle Ingram Ruiter, Rober Boshra · Filed: 2019-07-16 (US16/513,469; PCT/CA2019/050982) · Published: 2023-10-12 · Status: Active (US); WO ceased; continuation US19/248,349 pending (filed 2025-06-24)

DimensionValue
Target speciesHuman — 306 “patient” mentions; 13 “human”; zero animal/rodent/primate mentions
Brain recordingYES — EEG + ERP — 64 EEG mentions; 49 ERP; 40 P300; 45 MMN; electrodes on head

An EEG-based cognitive assessment system from the McMaster/Connolly group. The system presents intermixed/repeated sensory stimuli (auditory tones, vibrations, olfactory, or visual) while recording EEG, extracts ERP signal components (P300, MMN, CVMT), and classifies cognitive health using machine learning (G06N20/00). The design probes both pre-attentive brain responses (mismatch negativity — MMN) and consciously controlled attention (P300), enabling assessment of attention/concentration, information processing, and working memory in patients who may not be able to give active behavioural responses. Claim 20 specifies: sensor apparatus with EEG electrodes, sensory output devices, stimulus presentation mechanism, waveform feature extractor for ERP, and a processor comparing ERP data to a neurophysiological assessment output. The Connolly group is known for passive-attention MMN paradigms that probe pre-attentive sensory processing — this patent extends that work into a structured cognitive-health assessment product. Classified under A61B5/369 (EEG), A61B5/377 (EEG evoked responses), A61B5/165 (depression/anxiety evaluation), and A61B5/168 (attention deficit/hyperactivity). 1

US11154227B2 — Portable neurocognitive assessment and evaluation system (Hhitt Inc, 2021)

Assignee: Hhitt Inc · Inventor: Jacob Benford · Priority: 2011-03-18 (provisional 61/454,287) · Filed: 2012-03-16 (US13/422,125, abandoned); continuation 2019-03-22 (US16/362,049) · Granted: 2021-10-26 · Status: Active · Adjusted expiration: 2032-12-03

DimensionValue
Target speciesHuman — 9 “human” mentions; 35 “user”; 25 “subject”; zero animal/rodent/primate mentions
Brain recordingNO — purely behavioural: touchscreen, accelerometer (balance), camera (eye tracking); no EEG/electrodes/ERP

A portable, tablet-based (iPad/Galaxy Tab) neurocognitive assessment system for acute concussion / mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) field diagnosis. The system runs a 12-test battery via downloadable software: balance (accelerometer — keep a circle within a circle while standing on one leg), reaction time (tap moving dots), coordination (trace S-curve with finger), recollection, sequence memory, pattern recognition, color recognition (Stroop), impulse control, problem solving, eye movement tracking (camera + grid overlay), and short/long-term memory. The device features dual displays (touchscreen + second display), Internet connectivity for uploading results to a server, PIN-based subject registration, and normative/historical comparison. Notably no brain recording — the system is entirely behavioural, using the tablet’s built-in sensors (touchscreen, accelerometer, camera) as measurement modalities. Classified under A61B5/16 (psychotechnics), A61B5/162 (reaction time), A61B5/163 (eye movement/gaze/pupil), A61B5/165 (depression/anxiety), and G09B5/02 (educational appliances). The comprehensive test battery is conceptually a portable CANTAB-like system aimed at sports medicine / field-deployable concussion screening. 2

US11857349B2 — Apparatus and related method to facilitate test via a computing device (Cleveland Clinic / Biogen, 2024)

Assignee: Cleveland Clinic Foundation; assigned to Biogen MA Inc. (2020-02-21) · Inventors: Jay L. Alberts, David D. Schindler, Jane Rhodes · Filed: 2016-04-18 (US16/578,892) · Granted: 2024-01-02 · Status: Active

DimensionValue
Target speciesHuman — 24 “human” mentions; 90 “user”; 141 “patient”; 1 “animal” (passing reference); zero rodent/monkey/primate
Brain recordingNO — physical apparatus (pegboard overlay on touchscreen); capacitive coupling; accelerometer (14 mentions); no EEG/electrodes/ERP

A physical apparatus that converts a standard tablet touchscreen into a cognitive/motor testing device. A hinged test fixture with a 2D array of receptacles overlays the tablet display; contact members (pegs) inserted into receptacles are detected by the tablet’s capacitive touchscreen — even without user finger contact on the pegs. The hinge forms part of an electrical path to the device’s ground, ensuring reliable capacitive detection. The system stores test module instructions for “at least one of a neurological or cognitive function test” and records results in response to user interaction (claim 10). The Biogen/Cleveland Clinic partnership (Alberts lab is known for MS motor-cognitive research) suggests the primary use case is multiple sclerosis motor-cognitive assessment — pegboard tasks (9-hole peg test, Grooved Pegboard) are standard MS outcome measures. This is conceptually an extension of the CANTAB touchscreen paradigm with a physical manipulandum layer, but no brain recording — the modalities are touch interaction, capacitive peg detection, and accelerometer-based movement tracking. Classified under A61B5/103 (body shape/pattern/movement), A61B5/11 (head/hand tremor/mobility), and A61B3/028 (visual acuity testing). 3

US20170039303A1 (granted US10387587B2) — Computer simulation of animal training scenarios and environments (Radio Systems Corp, 2017)

Assignee: Radio Systems Corp (PetSafe/Invisible Fence) · Inventors: Christopher E. Mainini, William S. Groh · Filed: 2016-05-16 (US15/155,637; PCT/US2016/046034, ceased) · Published: 2017-02-09 · Granted: US10387587B2, 2019-08-20 · Status: Active · Adjusted expiration: 2036-07-18

DimensionValue
Target speciesAnimal (dog) — 107 “animal”; 229 “dog”; 6 “human” (the human is the trainer, not the subject); zero rodent/monkey/primate
Brain recordingNo — simulation software with peripheral input devices; no EEG/electrodes/ERP

A virtual environment for simulating pet training scenarios — the user practices using electronic training collars (shock/vibration/sound) on a simulated dog in a simulated environment before using the physical product. The animal’s behaviours (sit, heel, avoid jumping on furniture, stop barking) and the training product’s stimulus delivery (positive/negative) are simulated and evaluated. Classified under A01K15/02 (animal training equipment, mazes/labyrinths) and A01K15/021 (electronic training for dogs/cats), not medical diagnostics. Tangentially related to cognitive testing — it simulates behavioural conditioning, but for pet owner training rather than cognitive assessment. 4

CN114096194B — Systems and methods for cognitive training and monitoring (Aceral Co Ltd, 2022)

Assignee: Aceral Co Ltd · Inventors: Yair Gilutz (耶尔·吉卢茨), Shai Granot (沙伊·格拉诺特), Anna Izotzky (安娜·伊左特奇夫) · Filed: 2020-05-04 (CN202080040282.1A; US17/615,200) · Granted: CN114096194B, 2022 · Status: Active · Anticipated expiration: 2040-05-04

DimensionValue
Target speciesHuman — 9 “human”; 212 “user”; 2 “patient”; zero animal/rodent/primate
Brain recordingOptional — EEG + eye tracking — 23 EEG mentions; EEG sensor in claim 18; eye-tracking imager in claim 22; ML (LSTM/RNN) for success prediction

A cognitive training and monitoring system from Aceral (Israeli company). The core method is behavioural: users respond to cognitive training exercises, and a machine-learning pipeline (recurrent neural networks with LSTM, trained via supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning) predicts training success rate, modifies the training program accordingly, and issues alarms if performance degrades. EEG (claim 18) and eye tracking (claim 22) are optional sensors for user profiling and attention monitoring — not the primary modality. Classified under A61B5/16 (psychotechnics), A61B5/4088 (cognitive diseases — Alzheimer/dementia), G16H20/70 (mental therapies), and G06N3/0442 (LSTM). The system targets cognitive diseases including Alzheimer’s and dementia, making it a therapeutic training tool rather than pure assessment. 5

US11676506B1 — Cognitive training method (Sylvain Moreno, 2023)

Assignee: Individual (Sylvain Jean-Pierre Daniel Moreno) · Inventor: Sylvain Jean-Pierre Daniel Moreno · Priority: 2011-04-20 (US13/090,677) · Filed: 2013-09-04 (US14/017,493, expired-fee); continuation 2022-06-30 (US17/810,227) · Granted: 2023-06-13 · Status: Active · Anticipated expiration: 2031-04-20

DimensionValue
Target speciesHuman (children) — 13 “human”; 795 “user”; 142 “animal” (ALL refer to animated cartoon animal characters used as visual stimuli, NOT animal testing); 3 “monkey” (stimulus characters); zero rodent
Brain recordingOptional — EEG/ERP — portable EEG (1-10 leads) as optional measurement; ERP data (P2, Go/No-Go) shown as evaluation outcome; 2 EEG mentions; 9 ERP mentions

A cognitive training method from Sylvain Moreno (Baycrest/NOSM University, known for auditory cognitive training in children). The primary method is behavioural: cue-probe-distractor tasks with adaptive difficulty (perceptual + conceptual), using animated animal characters paired with musical sounds as cross-modal stimuli. Input devices include touchscreen, motion sensor, accelerometer, microphone. The patent includes ERP evidence (FIG. 33-34): grand-average ERP at Cz for Go/No-Go, with P2 amplitude increasing significantly post-training (7.3 µV → 11.6 µV, p<0.05), interpreted as training-related improvement in conflict/decision processing. EEG is an optional evaluation tool, not the primary modality. The Go/No-Go paradigm and adaptive difficulty are directly relevant to the CANTAB/touchscreen cognitive testing framework. 6

US20230097582A1 — System and method for selecting and executing training protocols for autonomously training an animal (Companion Labs, 2023)

Assignee: Companion Labs Inc · Inventors: Paul Mundell, John Honchariw, Noémie A. Guérin, Sayli Benadikar, Tim Genske · Filed: 2021-01-11 (US17/146,411) · Published: 2023-03-30 · Status: Active (US17/146,411); US18/074,205 abandoned

DimensionValue
Target speciesAnimal (dog) — 79 “animal”; 641 “dog”; 8 “human” (the human is the trainer, not the subject); zero rodent/monkey/primate
Brain recordingNo — video feed + treat dispenser + optical sensor (computer vision); no EEG/electrodes/ERP

An autonomous animal training system from Companion Labs (San Francisco pet-tech startup). A training apparatus with an integrated optical sensor (camera) and treat dispenser runs autonomous training protocols: it detects the dog in the video feed, dispenses treats based on performed behaviours, calculates a training score, tracks anxiety level from video behaviour analysis, and generates prompts for manual (human-guided) training when the autonomous score falls below threshold. Classified under A01K15/02 (animal training equipment), A01K15/0201 (treat dispensers), and G06V40/20 (behaviour/gesture recognition). No brain recording. Tangentially related to cognitive testing — it is automated operant conditioning with computer-vision-based behaviour analysis, structurally similar to preclinical touchscreen chambers but designed for pet training. 7

US20220207902A1 — Automatically discovering, characterizing, classifying and labeling animal behavior (Harvard University, 2022)

Assignee: Harvard University · Inventors: Sandeep Robert Datta, Alexander B. Wiltschko · Filed: 2013-05-10 (EP13788526.5A; US17/581,326, 2022-03-23) · Published: 2022-06-30 · Status: Withdrawn · Family: EP4198926A1 (EP, withdrawn); WO2013170129A1 (WO)

DimensionValue
Target speciesAnimal (mouse/rodent) — 230 “animal”; 109 “mouse”; 9 “rodent”; 3 “primate”; 23 “subject”; zero human-as-subject
Brain recordingNo — depth camera (95 mentions) + touch-sensitive device (33) + video (64); no EEG/electrodes/ERP

The Datta Lab (Harvard) automated animal behaviour phenotyping system. Uses 3D depth cameras and machine-learning (Kalman filter contour tracking → PCA/SVD/ICA dimensionality reduction → clustering) to automatically discover, classify, and label mouse behaviours without human annotation. Produces “quantitative behavioural primitives” — unsupervised behavioural categories from multi-dimensional pose/posture data. Classified under G06V40/10 (animal body recognition), A01K29/005 (monitoring animal activity), A01K67/00 (breeding animals), and A61B5/11 (body movement measurement). Withdrawn, but the underlying work became the commercial DeepLabCut ecosystem and the Wiltschko/Datta behavioural phenotyping platform. Directly relevant to preclinical cognitive testing because it provides the automated behavioural measurement infrastructure that operant/touchscreen experiments rely on for phenotyping. 8

AU2022409850A1 — Computer-based systems for acquiring and analyzing observational subject data (PGI Drug Discovery, 2023)

Assignee: PGI Drug Discovery LLC · Inventors: Hasan Almawi, Alberto Ambesi-Impiombato, Mukesh Bansal, Daniela Brunner, et al. · Filed: 2022-12-16 (PCT/US2022/053289) · Status: Ceased (AU)

DimensionValue
Target speciesAnimal (rodent) — 348 “animal”; 111 “rodent”; 54 “mouse”; 13 “rat”; 469 “subject”; 24 “human” (translational context)
Brain recordingYES — pharmacological EEG (pEEG) — 152 EEG mentions; 23 “electrode”; 50 “neural”; pEEG is a core modality, not optional

A comprehensive rodent drug-screening platform from PGI Drug Discovery (PsychoGenics/Innovive partnership). An instrumented enclosure with sensing devices (cameras, EEG electrodes) captures observational data from a rodent administered a drug. A machine-learning pipeline extracts instant behavioural features (forward walk, immobile, turn around, backward walk) → higher-order features (state features, motif features, domain features) via supervised/unsupervised ML → predicts drug class labels. The pEEG (pharmacological EEG) dimension is core — rodent pEEG signatures translate to receptor affinity predictions (e.g., benzodiazepine receptor). This is the first patent in this collection with both rodent subjects AND brain recording as a primary modality. Classified under G16H70/40 (drug side effects), A61B5/4848 (treatment effects monitoring), and G06V10/40 (image feature extraction). Ceased in AU, but the PCT family may be active in other jurisdictions. 9

US20180007862A1 — Systems, methods and apparatus for rodent behavioural monitoring (University of Toronto, 2018)

Assignee: University of Toronto · Inventors: Robert P. Bonin, David Dubins, Jeffrey Mogil, Irene Lecker · Filed: 2017-07-05 · Status: Abandoned

DimensionValue
Target speciesAnimal (rodent) — 198 “rodent”; 18 “animal”; 12 “mouse”; zero primate/monkey
Brain recordingNo — cage-lid interaction sensor (various modalities: capacitive, inductive, load cell, optical); 123 “sensor”; no EEG/ERP

A home-cage rodent behavioural monitoring system from University of Toronto (Bonin/Dubins/Mogil). Non-invasive sensors detect interactions with the cage lid (climbing, hanging) as a health/behaviour proxy. Can be retrofitted to existing rodent cages or supplied as a replacement sensorized lid. Supports multiple individually-identified rodents (RFID or time-stamped location). Classified under A01K1/031 (cages for laboratory animals) and A01K29/005 (monitoring/measuring activity). Abandoned. Relevant to the automated cognitive testing landscape because it represents the home-cage monitoring approach (passive, longitudinal, non-invasive) that complements active operant/touchscreen testing — cage-lid climbing is used in pain and welfare assessment. 10

CN205357588U — Water supply device for non-human primate cognitive function touch screen test cage (Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS, 2016)

Assignee: Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS (中国科学院昆明动物研究所) · Inventors: Wu Shihao (吴诗昊), Yang Shangchuan (杨上川), Hu Yingzhou (胡英周), Zhang Lin Heng (张琳恒) · Filed: 2016-01-24 (CN201620065028.8U) · Status: Expired — Fee Related

DimensionValue
Target speciesAnimal (non-human primate) — 9 “animal”; 6 “primate”; 5 “monkey”; zero rodent/mouse
Brain recordingNo — mechanical water reward delivery device; infrared sensor on nozzle; no EEG/electrodes

A physical apparatus component for NHP touchscreen cognitive testing from the Kunming Institute of Zoology (CAS) — a major Chinese primate research centre. An adjustable water reward nozzle (vertical + horizontal adjustment via screw + rack-and-pinion mechanism) positioned in front of the touchscreen in a primate cognitive test cage. The miniature infrared sensor on the nozzle detects when the animal drinks. Though narrow in scope (just the water reward mechanism) and expired, it is notable as a rare patent specifically targeting non-human primate touchscreen cognitive testing — the NHP equivalent of the Bussey-Saksida rodent touchscreen chamber. NHP touchscreen cognitive testing is the direct translational bridge between rodent touchscreen tasks and human CANTAB. 11

Dimensions of comparison

Target species

All three patents target humans exclusively. None mention animal models, rodent testing, or non-human primate protocols. This is a significant distinction from the nonverbal-cognitive-tasks and preclinical-drug-screening concept pages, where the same cognitive tasks (DMS, ID/ED, attention) are explicitly translational — validated across humans, NHPs, and rodents via cantab and its preclinical analogues (e.g. MonkeyCANTAB, Bussey-Saksida touchscreen chambers). The patent landscape for cognitive testing is human-clinical-focused: concussion diagnosis (Hhitt), MS motor-cognitive (Cleveland Clinic/Biogen), and general cognitive health (McMaster). Preclinical animal cognitive testing apparatus — operant chambers, touchscreen rodent systems — does not appear to be heavily patented in the same way; it lives in the academic literature and commercial product space (Campden Instruments, Lafayette Instruments, Bussey-Saksida chambers).

With the second batch, two animal-target patents enter the landscape: US20170039303A1 (Radio Systems Corp — dog training simulation, A01K classification) and US20230097582A1 (Companion Labs — autonomous dog training with computer vision, A01K classification). Both target dogs, not laboratory animals. They are classified under animal husbandry (A01K), not medical diagnostics (A61B), and are tangentially related — they are behavioural conditioning systems, not cognitive assessment. However, they highlight a structural parallel: the Companion Labs autonomous training apparatus (video detection → treat dispenser → training score → protocol selection) is architecturally similar to a preclinical operant chamber (stimulus → response → reinforcement → adaptive protocol), except using computer vision instead of lever-press/touchscreen detection and targeting pet dogs rather than rodents.

A third batch introduces laboratory-animal-specific patents: US20220207902A1 (Harvard/Datta — mouse behaviour phenotyping via depth camera, withdrawn), AU2022409850A1 (PGI Drug Discovery — rodent drug screening with EEG + behavioural monitoring, ceased), US20180007862A1 (University of Toronto — rodent home-cage lid-interaction monitoring, abandoned), and CN205357588U (Kunming Institute of Zoology/CAS — NHP touchscreen test cage water reward, expired). These are the first patents in the collection explicitly targeting laboratory animals (mice, rats, non-human primates) for research rather than pet training. The PGI Drug Discovery patent is particularly significant — it is the first with both rodent subjects AND brain recording (pEEG) as a primary modality, bridging the two dimensions. The Kunming NHP touchscreen apparatus is a rare patent covering the NHP translational bridge between rodent touchscreen tasks and human CANTAB.

Brain recording vs. behavioural-only

PatentBrain recording?Modality
US20230320647A1 (McMaster)YES — EEG/ERPScalp electrodes; P300, MMN, CVMT; ML classifier
US11154227B2 (Hhitt)NoTouchscreen + accelerometer + camera (eye tracking)
US11857349B2 (Cleveland Clinic/Biogen)NoPhysical pegboard overlay (capacitive) + accelerometer
CN114096194B (Aceral)Optional — EEG + eye trackingBehavioural (primary) + EEG sensor (claim 18) + eye imager (claim 22); LSTM/RL for training success
US11676506B1 (Moreno)Optional — EEG/ERPBehavioural (primary: cue-probe-distractor, Go/No-Go) + portable EEG (1-10 leads); ERP pre/post comparison (P2)
US20170039303A1 (Radio Systems)NoSimulation software; peripheral input devices; no sensors on subject
US20230097582A1 (Companion Labs)NoComputer vision (video feed) + treat dispenser; optical sensor behaviour detection
US20220207902A1 (Harvard/Datta)NoDepth camera + touch-sensitive device + ML clustering (mouse behaviour phenotyping)
AU2022409850A1 (PGI Drug Discovery)YES — pEEG (primary)Pharmacological EEG (152 mentions) + camera/video in instrumented enclosure; ML drug classification
US20180007862A1 (Toronto/Bonin)NoCage-lid interaction sensor (capacitive/inductive/load cell/optical); home-cage monitoring
CN205357588U (Kunming/CAS)NoMechanical water reward nozzle + infrared sensor; NHP touchscreen test cage component

Only the McMaster patent uses brain recording (EEG/ERP) as the primary modality. Two additional patents (Aceral, Moreno) include EEG as an optional sensor — in both cases, the primary method is behavioural (cognitive training exercises with adaptive difficulty), and EEG serves as a supplementary evaluation or profiling tool. The remaining four are purely behavioural — relying on touchscreen interaction, physical manipulanda, accelerometers, cameras, or computer vision. This bifurcation mirrors the broader cognitive-assessment field: EEG/ERP-based passive assessment (no active behavioural response needed; can be used with non-communicative patients) vs. behavioural active assessment (touchscreen reaction time, peg placement, balance, eye tracking — requires patient engagement and motor function). The McMaster MMN/P300 approach is particularly relevant to the nonverbal-cognitive-tasks framework because it probes pre-attentive sensory processing — the same information-processing stage that the affective bias and judgement bias tasks target behaviourally. The Moreno and Aceral patents extend this by adding EEG as an outcome measure for cognitive training — demonstrating brain-level changes (P2 amplitude) that complement behavioural performance scores. The PGI Drug Discovery patent (AU2022409850A1) is unique: it uses pharmacological EEG (pEEG) as a primary modality in a rodent drug-screening context — not for cognitive assessment per se, but for predicting drug class from brain-signal signatures. This makes it the only patent in the collection where brain recording is both primary and applied to animal subjects.

References

Footnotes

  1. raw/articles/patent-us20230320647a1-mcmaster-cognitive-eeg-2023.md ↩

  2. raw/articles/patent-us11154227b2-hhitt-portable-neurocognitive-2021.md ↩

  3. raw/articles/patent-us11857349b2-cleveland-clinic-touchscreen-peg-2024.md ↩

  4. raw/articles/patent-us20170039303a1-radio-systems-animal-sim-2017.md ↩

  5. raw/articles/patent-cn114096194b-aceral-cognitive-training-2022.md ↩

  6. raw/articles/patent-us11676506b1-moreno-cognitive-training-2023.md ↩

  7. raw/articles/patent-us20230097582a1-companion-labs-autonomous-animal-2023.md, raw/articles/patent-us20220207902a1-harvard-animal-behavior-2022.md, raw/articles/patent-au2022409850a1-pgi-rodent-eeg-drug-screening-2023.md, raw/articles/patent-us20180007862a1-toronto-rodent-monitoring-2018.md, raw/articles/patent-cn205357588u-kunming-nhp-touchscreen-2016.md ↩

  8. raw/articles/patent-us20220207902a1-harvard-animal-behavior-2022.md ↩

  9. raw/articles/patent-au2022409850a1-pgi-rodent-eeg-drug-screening-2023.md ↩

  10. raw/articles/patent-us20180007862a1-toronto-rodent-monitoring-2018.md ↩

  11. raw/articles/patent-cn205357588u-kunming-nhp-touchscreen-2016.md ↩

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