# Mobile brain sensing platform for detection of opioid craving and treatment response

> **NIH NIH R43** · NEUROTYPE INC. · 2020 · $235,084

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Significance: Over 2 million Americans have an Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and relapse following treatment
exceeds 60%, underlining a need to understand what “works” (and what does not) in OUD interventions.
Currently, there are no standardized, objective point of care tools to inform treatment providers of patients’
level of opioid craving and relapse vulnerability, leaving subjective and unclear a treatment’s effectiveness on
reducing craving and protecting against relapse. Such inadequacies contribute to the costly and chronic cycle
of relapse, emergency room visits, legal problems, treatment re-admittance, overdose, and possible death
experienced by OUD patients. Innovation: Using consumer-grade mobile electroencephalogram (EEG)
headsets and proprietary software, Neurotype Inc. proposes development and commercialization of
NeuromarkR™, a point of care brain-sensing platform that enables detection of EEG cue reactivity correlates
of drug craving and prospective indicators of drug use and relapse. NeuromarkR may be used by EEG non-
experts (e.g., clinicians, technicians) to quantify biomarker correlates of opioid craving, benchmark treatment
effectiveness, and potentially inform treatment decisions. The NeuromarkR platform: 1) acquires patients’ EEG
during viewing of affective (emotion-laden) and opioid-related images, 2) performs fully-automated EEG signal
processing and cue reactivity quantification, and 3) generates a digital report of opioid cue reactivity
phenotypes which can be measured longitudinally to objectively quantify treatment endpoints (e.g., craving
reduction, change in drug cue reactivity). Specific aims: There are two aims of this SBIR Phase I project,
including: 1) measurement and longitudinal tracking of craving and EEG cue reactivity phenotypes in
treatment-seeking OUD patients over 48 weeks of recovery, and 2) development of our NeuromarkR prototype
into a scalable web platform for generating clinical insights and reports at the point of care. Expected
outcome: Successful project outcomes include: 1) identification of drug cue reactivity phenotypes (e.g., EEG
reactivity to opioid cues that resembles EEG reactivity to naturally rewarding cues) in OUD patients that
correlate with recovery outcomes (e.g., treatment completion, prolonged abstinence, reduced craving), and 2)
an established web platform that enables broader clinical and research use. Finally, we will obtain feedback
from crucial stakeholders (e.g., clinicians, patients) and initiate Q-Submission meetings with the Food and Drug
Administration to refine our regulatory plan for the Phase II project. Investigators: Our team includes experts
in clinical substance abuse treatment, addiction neuroscience, EEG brain monitoring, software engineering,
and health technology startup development expertise.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10158211
- **Project number:** 1R43DA053072-01
- **Recipient organization:** NEUROTYPE INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Scott Burwell
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $235,084
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10158211

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10158211, Mobile brain sensing platform for detection of opioid craving and treatment response (1R43DA053072-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10158211. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*