Scientists are testing a potentially promising technology: brain implants that affect human behavior and feelings. Two groups of researchers funded by the US military from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) have begun preliminary human testing of such feedback implants. They use special algorithms to identify patterns associated with organic emotional disorders, and in the long term are designed to stimulate the brain to a healthy state without medical intervention.
The work was shown during a recent meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in Washington, DC, and will ultimately lead to the treatment of severe mental illnesses that are beyond the reach of modern medical methods. DARPA's interest is to treat soldiers suffering from severe PTSD. But at the same time, an ethical dilemma arises - such technology can give the military and the government new ways to access and influence the inner feelings of a person in real time.
The general idea is to use a neuroimplant to deliver electrical impulses that alter neural activity (deep brain stimulation). This approach has been used to treat movement disorders like Parkinson's, but has not previously been successful in preventing emotional disorders. Several studies have shown that stimulating specific areas of the brain can relieve chronic depression. However, larger, larger studies involving a group of 90 people with persistent depression for a year did not find noticeable improvement.
But scientists, funded by the US defense department, argue that their work has a much better chance of success. According to project lead neurologist Edward Chang of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), researchers are well aware of the limitations of modern technology. Therefore, their solutions are designed specifically for the treatment of mental illness and are included only when really necessary. The study involved people with epilepsy and already had electrodes implanted in the brain. Scientists are looking to understand how intermittent stimulation affects brain function (past implants used continuous stimulation).
Edward Chang's team worked with six of these people, constantly monitoring their brain activity and mood in detail over the course of 1 to 3 weeks. By comparing the brain map before and after stimulation, they identified dependencies that affect the patient's emotional mood. Now they are ready to test their new implant with feedback - all that remains is to find a suitable volunteer.
The Massachusetts Hospital in Boston (MGH) team takes a different approach. Instead of identifying certain emotional or mental illnesses, they want to establish certain patterns in brain activity associated with behaviors that are present in many disorders, such as difficulty concentrating or empathy. At the SfN conference, they reported on tests of algorithms designed to stimulate the brain when a person is distracted from tasks such as matching pictures of numbers or identifying emotions on faces.
They found that electrical stimulation of the parts of the brain associated with decision-making and emotions significantly improved the performance of people who participated in the tests. Researchers have also identified patterns in brain activity that occur when a person starts making mistakes or slowing down in a series of tasks due to distraction or forgetfulness. Moreover, they were able to suppress these problems through stimulation. And now scientists have begun testing algorithms that use such unwanted brain patterns to activate automatic AI stimulation.
In the future, such algorithms should become more complex and personalized. The only problem is not to suppress all emotions, creating a feeling of incredible happiness in the patient. Another, ethical, problem is that researchers will be able to understand even the emotions and feelings of a person hidden by behavior and facial expressions. In the future, such research may lead to the creation of non-invasive methods of therapy for emotional disorders by stimulating the brain through the skull.
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Konstantin Khodakovsky
