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Brain Wave Technology

New EEG technology offers insight into the effects of cannabis and opens new doors to understanding consumer differences.

 

KRISTINA ETTERKristina Etter spent 20 years in corporate IT with a niche in mobile technology and IoT in agriculture. Today, she combines her love of technology with a passion for cannabis as the Editorial Director for Cannabis Tech.
 

One of the biggest challenges with cannabis legalization has been learning how to discern impairment. But roadside and workplace testing is only scratching the surface in terms of what is possible when science begins to quantify the overall cannabis experience.

Zentrela, a Canadian technology company, has designed a device to unlock a wide range of mysteries surrounding the psychoactive effects of cannabis. Cannabis Tech had the opportunity to speak with Israel Gasperin, Founder and CEO, to learn more about this cutting-edge research and break-thru cannabis technology.

VISUALIZING CANNABIS IMPAIRMENT

Gasperin became interested in EEG technology for detecting driver fatigue in 2016. Soon after, insurance agencies, transportation companies, and law enforcement began challenging his company to develop a method for determining levels of cannabis impairment based on brain wave analysis and quantify the effects.

By the time recreational cannabis was legalized in 2018, they already had the prototypes to show this technology was a feasible solution for the problem. The Cognalyzer® solves the age-old riddle, “How high is ‘high’?”

The challenge of field saliva tests and even blood tests is that the THC metabolite can be detected days or weeks after consumption. Additionally, many medical patients and daily cannabis consumers develop a tolerance to the psychoactive effects of cannabis. Therefore, although someone may have THC in their system, this isn’t a good gauge of impairment.

The new technology uses a two-minute recording of the consumer’s brain waves to determine if someone is high and just how high they are with a scale of psychoactive activity. Using artificial intelligence and complex algorithms, The Cognalyzer® has an 85% accuracy rate.

Gasperin stated, “Our results show that combining the two tests complement each other and can reduce up to 50% of potential false accusations of cannabis impairment due to THC residuals detected in oral fluids.”

He concluded, “We’ve come up with a fair way to promote responsible and safe cannabis use while avoiding false accusations.”

QUANTIFYING THE CANNABIS EXPERIENCE

While Gasperin certainly appreciates the public and workplace safety aspects of their technology, he also believes there’s an immediate commercial application that goes beyond detecting THC impairment. By analyzing the brain waves of consumers, the Cognalyzer® can quantify the cannabis experience of individual products.

Through partnerships with Licensed Producers (LPs) in Canada, Zentrela is providing a first-of-its-kind opportunity in consumer research to offer objective data regarding the onset, strength, and duration of the psychoactive effects.

“We are a gateway to generate those product effect profiles to help cannabis producers demonstrate the experience their products provide, differentiate their brand, and grow their market,” Gasperin elaborated.

Pointing out that Canada’s regulations are more strict than the United States, Gasperin believes their technology will help producers provide the most useful data available to the consumers. And any steps toward more informed consumers are headed in the right direction.

UTILIZING CANNABIS CONSUMER PROFILES FOR A REPEATABLE EXPERIENCE

“Part of the consumer research service we provide to LPs is to create the first scientific database of product effects linked to specific consumer profiles,” Gasperin explained.

In their research, Zentrela invited cannabis consumers to participate in the study, and they collected multiple points of data such as demographics, psychographics, and even subjective points like mood and mental state. By collecting this data and analyzing their results, Zentrela intends to help producers create repeatable experiences based on consumer profiles.

“Consumer profiles become the target audience,” he noted. “You want to focus on the consumer who will enjoy the effects of the product, and when you can deliver a repeatable, enjoyable experience, you build brand loyalty.”

He added, “Down the road when this database is more robust; our vision is to help consumers to engineer their own experience by knowing how much and how to consume a particular product to achieve the specific experience they want.”

THE MORE WE LEARN

Currently working with some of the top LPs in Canada, Zentrela has a solid, validated business model. Today, they plan to scale up their database development and continue mapping the effects of both Canadian and United States cannabis products.

Speaking optimistically about their progress, Gasperin said, “One of the biggest challenges we faced in 2016 was the credibility that this idea was feasible because of the lack of scientific literature. The combination of huge amounts of data related to brainwaves and leveraging AI to identify complex patterns that we humans cannot identify – is making a difference.”

by ghisrael

Neurotechnology combined with

A new study, released today in the scientific journal Advances in Therapy is providing critical evidence that neurotechnology combined with saliva testing can drastically reduce the likelihood of falsely determining cannabis impairment due to THC residual detection. The independent, blind study, conducted by KGK Science on behalf of Zentrela, confirms that Zentrela’s pioneering neurotechnology is the industry’s most accurate test for detecting and quantifying actual cannabis psychoactive effects, and unlocks the potential for new testing protocols for law enforcement and employers.

There is limited understanding of the brain effects caused by cannabis psychoactive properties, and limited means to accurately quantify those effects. Law enforcement and employers have relied upon traditional methods for detecting and quantifying THC-compound levels using body fluids such as saliva, blood and urine. However, it is well known that there is no direct correlation between THC concentration levels in body fluids and whether an individual is actually experiencing psychoactive effects associated with THC. This means law enforcement or employers cannot accurately confirm impairment, leading to the possibility of inaccurate determinations of cannabis impairment. These determinations can negatively affect the reputation and employment of individuals who may be consuming legal cannabis products responsibly.

The KGK Science study describes the performance of Zentrela’s Cognalyzer®neurotechnology to detect and quantify cannabis’ psychoactive effects and shows that when combined with an oral fluid test for detecting and quantifying THC levels, neurotechnology can drastically improve the accuracy of testing and minimize the likelihood of falsely determining cannabis impairment due to THC residual detection.

For the next phase of its research, Zentrela will collaborate with strategic research partners to correlate its objective cannabis psychoactive effect scale with driving and cognitive performance data to determine a psychoactive effect level (cutoff level) that indicates when it is not advisable for consumers to drive or work.

The ability to definitively measure the psychoactive effects of cannabis allows us to begin addressing the problems related to cannabis consumption that affect the industry and the broader community. A scientifically objective cannabis psychoactive-effect test has endless applications for cannabis producers and product manufacturers, for law enforcement, and for employers in many industries.”

Dr. Dan Bosnyak, Chief Science Officer, Zentrela

An available scientific database of cannabis product effects also unlocks one of the most significant challenges facing producers and brands in the recreational cannabis industry: availability of regulatory-compliant cannabis effect data.

Without this information, producers cannot differentiate their products and inform consumers about the different effects created by their recreational cannabis products, retailers cannot meet their CANCELL mandate to educate consumers and promote responsible cannabis use and of course, consumers are missing out on the information that they require to make more accurate and informed decisions about recreational cannabis consumption. The data we are generating will give retailers and producers access to a centralized source of scientifically-derived product effect information, which will benefit the entire cannabis industry value chain.

Until this point, there simply hasn’t been an accurate, science-based test for quantifying cannabis psychoactive effects. We have clearly demonstrated that neuroscience powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can accurately detect and quantify the psychoactive effects of cannabis. This represents a huge potential for Zentrela to become the definitive source for specific, science-based data on cannabis product effects for the entire industry. And we are still at the beginning of our journey. There is no reason we cannot apply this proven neurotechnology to other drugs and industries.”

Israel Gasperin, CEO, Zentrela

 

by ghisrael

McMaster-incubated company

By Vjosa Isai, Staff Reporter

What can brainwaves tell us about a cannabis high?

Zentrela Inc., a Hamilton-based startup, wants to find out by measuring cognitive impairment using neural signals and machine learning.

Last month, the company received $850,000 in seed funding to build its data-as-a-service platform for producers and retailers with a focus on mapping the effects of “cannabis 2.0” products like extracts and edibles.

Israel Gasperin, a former graduate student in McMaster University’s entrepreneurship program, founded the startup through the school’s business incubator, The Forge.

Gasperin was initially attracted to neurotechnology research in 2016, as the looming legalization of cannabis raised questions about how it would shape safety protocols in the transportation sector, which also grapples with driver fatigue issues.

Modern drug tests measure the presence and concentration of cannabinoids such as THC — known as the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis — in a consumer’s saliva, urine or blood. These cannabis compounds can linger for more time than the high, Gasperin said, spurring the company to create a test “that actually measures drug effects, rather than concentration levels of a drug substance in the body.”

The company raised $1.2 million from government agencies and non-profits, including the Ontario Brain Institute, in 2019, to build an electroencephalogram, or EEG, prototype called the “Cognalyzer®,” which collects brainwaves from research participants.

Gasperin teamed up with Dan Bosnyak, a neuroscientist and technical director of the university’s LIVE (Large Interactive Virtual Environment) Lab, a performance hall where researchers can test and investigate wide-ranging behavioural responses, social interactions and technologies.

Bosnyak, Zentrela’s chief scientific officer, has been researching brain signal analysis and EEG technology for more than 25 years, and says the wearable technology industry is expanding data-collection capacity.

Zentrela is collecting data “to the same standards that I would conduct in my lab at McMaster,” Bosnyak said, adding that with commercial projects, “there’s a certain give-and-take. I have my standards that I try to enforce.”

The company commissioned an arm’s-length evaluation of their technology last year, he said, and hopes to soon have the trial results published in a peer-reviewed journal.

“Because we knew that our technology was kind of groundbreaking and people might not necessarily accept that, if we just said that it works,” he said, adding that the external research company’s test results are “basically the same as what we’re getting in internal research.”

Its latest $850,000 in funding is comes from Calgary-based investment firm Jornic Ventures, and will support the creation of a database documenting the effects of cannabis products. Gasperin said the plan is to license product effect data to retailers.

“That’s the value that we are adding to producers so they can … differentiate their products and explain to consumers in a scientific way, what are the effects that their products will create on them, because that is our end goal: to promote safe and responsible cannabis use,” Gasperin said.

Vjosa Isai is a reporter at The Spectator covering Hamilton-based business. Reach her via email: visai@thespec.com.
by ghisrael

This Device

The Cognalyzer Could be the Answer to Law Enforcement's Struggle to Find a Reliable Sobriety Test

 

 

Colin Butler · CBC News · 
 

Zentrella, the Hamilton, Ont.-based company behind the Cognalyzer, claims the technology is the first device capable of accurately and objectively measuring the psychoactive effects of THC in a person’s mind in order to determine sobriety. (Colin Butler/CBC News)

An Ontario technology company claims it has developed the first-ever device capable of objectively and accurately measuring a person’s cannabis impairment by reading their brainwaves.  

“The Cognalyzer,” is an electroencephalogram (EEG) device in the form of a headband that, when worn, collects brainwaves and analyzes them to determine the psychoactive effects of THC, the mind-altering substance in cannabis, on a person’s brain. 

Zentrela, the Hamilton, Ont.-based company behind the technology, claims the Cognalyzer could be a game-changer for employers and law enforcement agencies, which have been struggling to find a practical and reliable way to screen a person’s sobriety since the federal government legalized cannabis two years ago. 

The technology is currently undergoing clinical trials with London, Ont.-based KGK Science and, if the third-party scientific evaluation is successful, the trial could one day pave the way for the technology to be used by the Ontario Provincial Police and other law enforcement agencies.  

Brainwave reader undergoing clinical trials

 
 

Zentrela CEO Israel Gasperin explains what the clinical trials of his technology hope to prove.

1 year ago

1:10

Zentrela CEO Israel Gasperin explains what the clinical trials of his technology hope to prove. 1:10

Zentrela CEO Israel Gesparin said the device uses a proprietary algorithm that can analyze a person’s brain waves in a matter of minutes. 

“Within five minutes employers and law enforcement will have a result of the mental state of their subjects,” he said. 

The technology holds so much promise that the Ontario government has awarded Gesparin’s company a $1-million grant to study whether the device could be a potential solution to the thorny legal issue of the reliability of roadside saliva tests.

Since the federal government legalized recreational cannabis in October of 2017, it’s the only technology available to measure whether a driver is impaired. 

Cognlyzer won’t replace saliva test

 

The device, known as the Cognalyzer, is an electroencephalogram (EEG) device in the form of a headband, that when worn collects brainwaves and analyzes them in order to determine the psychoactive effects of THC, the active drug in cannabis, on the brain. (Colin Butler/CBC News)

Except the technology is controversial. The test was never actually intended to determine whether a driver is high, only whether the person has recently used cannabis. 

Because of that several police services across Canada have opted not to use saliva testing devices over questions about the machine’s accuracy, especially in colder weather. A study has also shown the test is prone to giving false readings. 

However, while Gasperin claims his technology is more accurate, it’s not meant to replace the saliva test at the roadside. 

“The opportunity of commercializing our technology is not at roadsides,” he said. “We are not replacing saliva tests. We are complimenting saliva test results.” 

Technology has workplace applications

 

Zentrela CEO Israel Gasperin (left) demonstrates the what the Cognalyzer looks like if worn by a person. (Colin Butler/CBC News)

Instead, Gasperin sees his device being used at a police station, where an officer trained in 12-step drug recognition procedures can use the device as a way to confirm whether the suspect whose saliva test was positive is actually high. 

He believes his technology would free those officers up for other tasks. 

“There are drug recognition experts who are overloaded with work because their drug evaluation takes 30 or 40 minutes to do,” he said. “There are not enough police officers trained to do 12-step drug recognition evaluation.”

Gasperin said the technology can also be used by employers who want to screen employees for potential drug use in the workplace. 

“Employers are having the same issue in administering random drug tests,” he said. “It’s limited evidence and their employees know it’s limited evidence and they are legally challenging any decision taken and it’s costing thousands of dollars to employers.” 

“Now they will have that confirmatory evidence to eliminate false accusations and strengthen their safety practices to mitigate the risk of impairment.” 

Gasperin said because the technology is still being tested, Zentela has yet to determine what price for which the technology would one day be sold.

“We’re still figuring that out,” he said. 

Researchers looking for a few good tokers

The research on whether the technology works is still being conducted by KGK Science, which is currently recruiting participants for a paid study in London. 

The company is looking for men and women between the ages 19 and 55 who are regular cannabis users. 

by ghisrael

Strategic Advisory Board

Zentrela Announces Creation of Strategic Advisory Board

HAMILTON, ON, Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW/ – Canadian neurotech start-up Zentrela today announced the creation of a Strategic Advisory Board (SAB), a group of cannabis industry experts and veteran entrepreneurs chosen to counsel the company commercializing their technology globally.

Israel Gasperin, company CEO and Founder commented, “With our recent infusion of investment capital and the scientific validation of our proprietary research methodology, the time is right to think more broadly about the range of commercial opportunities that are available to us.” The new advisors include:

  • Alex Revich, an Equity Partner at Hybrid Pharm, is a pioneer in the Canadian cannabis industry. Alex combines a vast network of industry relationships with extensive experience in the medical cannabis sector as well as years spent educating cannabis consumers and retail staff on how to safely enjoy recreational cannabis products.

  • Gregg Battersby is the Founder and President of Peak Processing Solutions, a licensed producer of Cannabis 2.0 products specializing in 3rd party commercialization and manufacturing of cannabis-infused products. Gregg has a wealth of experience commercializing products within the cannabis industry and keeps his finger on the pulse of trends and opportunities in the Canadian cannabis space to support partners in bringing innovative and disruptive products to market.

  • Jordon Sansom, investor and Director of Marketing at Shape Products brings deep industrial design expertise to the neurotech category where continuous innovation is required to keep Zentrela on the forefront of new ergonomic data collection technologies.

  • Andrew Holden, Co-founder and CTO of Weever Apps, is a successful Canadian entrepreneur who has built his own software company that enables the world’s leading manufacturers to digitize, transform and visualize their operations. Andrew also advises Canadian software entrepreneurs on how to build scalable organizations structured for global growth.

“I have spent years in the cannabis industry providing consumers with the information they require for the safe and informed use of cannabis products,” said Alex Revich. “Zentrela brings exactly the kind of science-backed product effect information the industry needs to educate consumers and grow the category.”

“The next wave of growth in the cannabis industry,” according to Gregg Battersby, “will come from product innovation and new users. Zentrela is the missing piece of the puzzle, they provide the scientific product-effect information new users require to comfortably experiment with new products. How high will I get; how long will I feel the effects? These are the questions that Zentrela answers.”

“Neurotechnology represents a powerful synthesis of technical capabilities that didn’t exist ten years ago,” said Jordon Sansom, “Personally, I am focused on human-centric design, keeping the consumer at the centre of the entire process from research through to education. Zentrela understands that ultimately this is all about helping individuals make better decisions.”

“Zentrela is poised for a period of very fast growth,” offered Andrew Holden, “their technology is proven, they are attracting savvy investors and the industry is growing at an exponential rate. My role is to challenge them to think laterally across the business to ensure that they have built the right structure and established the necessary processes and metrics to sustain the challenges associated with high growth global start-ups.

In 2019 Zentrela raised $1.2M in funding from the Ontario Brain Institute and various government agencies to fund prototype development and clinical trials. They have recently announced a successful seed round of $850,000 which will be used in part to fund this round of research and accelerate progress on creating the world’s largest scientific database of cannabis consumer experiences1.

The neuroscience of cannabis is advancing quickly at pace with the speed of deregulation, as government regulators, license producers, drug testing experts, law enforcement officials and recreational cannabis users seek to better understand cannabis and its effects on the brain.

“Our research has already identified several proprietary signatures related to how cannabis impacts the brain. We are now cataloguing the entire universe of consumer experiences for Cannabis 2.0 products. This goldmine of data will help unlock new insights and opportunities for licensed producers and enable cannabis consumers to make more informed purchase decisions to ensure responsible and enjoyable cannabis use,” says Israel Gasperin, Zentrela CEO and founder.

About Zentrela

Zentrela Inc. is advancing the understanding of the brain effects of recreational cannabis and is creating the world’s largest scientific database of cannabis consumer experiences. Visit us at https://www.zentrela.com

by ghisrael

$850K in Seed Funding

Neurotech Start-Up Zentrela Announces $850K in Seed Funding

HAMILTON, ON, Feb. 11, 2021 /CNW/ – Canadian neurotech start-up Zentrela today announced the completion of an $850K seed round led by Jornic Ventures.

The investment will be used to further commercialize Zentrela’s proprietary EEG test for cannabis impairment and create the world’s largest scientific database of cannabis product effects1. In 2019 the company raised $1.2M in funding from the Ontario Brain Institute and various government agencies to fund prototype development and clinical trials.

The neuroscience of cannabis is advancing quickly at pace with the speed of deregulation, as government regulators, license producers, drug testing experts, law enforcement officials and recreational cannabis users seek to better understand cannabis and its effects on the brain.

“Our research has already identified several proprietary signatures related to how cannabis impacts the brain. We are now cataloguing the entire universe of effects for Cannabis 2.0 products. This goldmine of data will help unlock new insights and opportunities for licensed producers and enable cannabis consumers to make more informed purchase decisions to ensure responsible and enjoyable cannabis use,” says Israel Gasperin, Zentrela CEO and founder.

“We expect innovative cannabis 2.0 products will trigger the next wave of growth in the cannabis sector, especially as US markets continue to deregulate and the prospect of national US legalization becomes more real,” says Richard Sansom, President of Jornic Ventures. “Zentrela’s unique and scalable neuroscience-based methodology solves a major challenge for the industry and promises to provide a rapidly growing universe of cannabis users with the information they demand and need safe and enjoyable cannabis use.”

Zentrela’s approach combines proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms with deep neuroscience expertise to decode electrical brain activity and convert it into reliable and meaningful information.

“The potential for neuroscience has exploded as artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms have matured. We can now isolate neural ‘signatures’ of product effects and use that information rapidly to accelerate the process of mapping specific cannabis product effects for consumers,” says Gasperin.

1 Zentrela’s neuroscience research methodology to measure drug effects over time has been independently validated in a clinical research trial conducted by KGK Science Inc

by ghisrael

Study confirms accuracy

Study Confirms Accuracy of Zentrela's neurotechnology

On April 6, an independent, blind study was released confirming that Zentrela’s cutting-edge “Cognalyzer®” neurotechnology accurately detects and quantifies actual cannabis psychoactive effects, and unlocks the potential for new testing protocols for law enforcement and employers.

The Cognalyzer® is a novel electroencephalography (EEG) measurement device and algorithm designed to objectively characterize brainwave alterations associated with cannabis.  The study conducted by KGK Science on behalf of The Forge alumnus Zentrela, was published in the scientific journal Advances in Therapy.

The KGK Science study describes the performance of Zentrela’s Cognalyzer® neurotechnology to detect and quantify cannabis’ psychoactive effects and provides critical evidence that when combined with an oral fluid test for detecting and quantifying THC levels, neurotechnology can radically improve the accuracy of testing and minimize the likelihood of falsely determining cannabis impairment due to THC residual detection.

“Until this point, there simply hasn’t been an accurate, science-based test for quantifying cannabis psychoactive effects,” says Zentrela CEO and founder Israel Gasperin. “We have clearly demonstrated that neuroscience powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can accurately detect and quantify the psychoactive effects of cannabis. This represents a huge potential for Zentrela to become the definitive source for specific, science-based data on cannabis product effects for the entire industry.”

Zentrela is a Hamilton-based start-up and an alumnus of The Forge Business Incubator Program, in the past three years the start-up has raised $2 million in funding for their prototype and clinical trials.

Read the full press release on Zentrela’s website.

by ghisrael

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