Release date: 2017-11-28
These implants use algorithms to detect patterns associated with mood disorders, which can shock the brain and return it to a healthy state without medical intervention.
The study, which was shown at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in Washington, DC, may eventually provide a way to treat several serious mental illnesses that are resistant to existing therapies. At the same time, it also raises thorny ethical issues, especially because it allows researchers to get somebody's inner feelings in real time.
At the SfN conference, Omid Sani, an electrical engineer from the University of Southern California, and Edward Chang, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, showed how the long-lasting mood was "coded" in the first map of the brain. The researchers worked with six epilepsy patients with electrodes implanted in the brain to track their brain activity and mood in detail over a period of 1 to 3 weeks. By comparing the two pieces of information, the researchers created an algorithm to "decode" the patient's changing mood. Some generalized patterns emerged, especially in areas of the brain that were previously associated with the same mood.
Sani said that once they find the right volunteers, Chang and his team will test the new closed-loop system at any time. Chang said the team has tested some closed-loop stimuli in the crowd. However, as the work was still preliminary, he refused to provide details.
Another team funded by DARPA and from the Massachusetts General Hospital is adopting another approach. Instead of detecting specific emotional or mental illnesses, they want to map brain activity associated with behaviors that occur in a variety of diseases, such as difficulty in concentration or empathy. At the SfN conference, the researchers reported on software developed to stimulate the brain when someone distracted from setting tasks such as matching digital images or recognizing facial emotions.
Researchers have found that releasing electrical impulses into areas of the brain that involve decisions and emotions can significantly improve the performance of test participants. The team also depicts brain activity that occurs when someone's performance in a particular task begins to decline due to forgetfulness or distraction. The study found that they can reverse this condition through electrical stimulation.
Source: Science Network
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