As part of a scientific initiative announced by Barack Obama aimed at studying the work of the brain, a project to study neural circuits in patients with mental disorders is starting in the United States.
American scientists intend to combat the consequences of post-traumatic stress in the military with the development of brain implants, writes NPR.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has officially announced the launch of a $ 70 million scientific project aimed at developing a brain implant to treat a range of mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
The five-year program is expected to help heal patients from depression, anxiety and other conditions common to soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco will work with the Massachusetts General Hospital to develop brain implants that track brain function.
The researchers will begin the study by studying the brain function of volunteers with implants already implanted to treat epilepsy or Parkinson's disease. This will allow researchers to get data directly from the brain, something that has never been done before, said Eddie Chang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco.
By monitoring the electrical activity of brain cells, researchers can study how neural circuits work in real time. With many of the volunteers suffering from depression, anxiety and other disorders, it will be possible to find out how these conditions altered certain neural circuits, Chang added. “If we can figure out exactly how the neural connection went wrong, we will get a hint of how to change it,” the neurosurgeon said.
Based on these data, scientists hope to create new types of implants that will help in treatment.
Promotional video:
Thanks to the plasticity property that allows the brain to adapt throughout life, an electronic device that stimulates certain brain cells can "heal" neural circuits that "have malfunctioned," notes Eddie Chang.
The scientific program is part of the Human Brain Research Initiative announced in 2013 by President Barack Obama (“Researching the Brain through Innovation in Advanced Neurotechnology”).
Brain implants that stimulate neurons are already being used in the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease and other diseases of the nervous system.
If successful, brain implants can help solve the problem facing the veteran community. According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, 11-20% of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD.