Earlier this month, at the annual conference of the Neuroscience Society, two teams of scientists demonstrated new technologies that could give us eternal bliss. What if the secret to everlasting happiness lies in a brain implant? Just imagine: a set of tiny electrodes sits quietly in different parts of the brain, recording the electrical activity of this organ in real time. The data is sent to a personal algorithm - a "mood map" - which can estimate a person's overall mood based on brain waves alone.
When the system registers patterns that indicate the onset of an episode of depression, it sends electrical signals to the mood center of the brain. Under the watchful eye of the algorithm, the system continues stimulating until the faulty circuits are returned to their "happy" state.
The algorithm is completely independent. Every signal, every setting is hidden under a cap. The system does not need the guidance of a doctor, and the person does not know about the signals - only feels a general relief of sadness.
DARPA-funded scientists hope these futuristic closed-loop implants will one day help veterans with PTSD - a post-traumatic stress disorder - or people with severe depression that defy drug treatment.
“The brain is very different from all other organs because of its networking and adaptability,” says Justin Sanchez, program manager at DARPA. "Closed neural interfaces in real time allow us to move away from the traditional static view of the brain and move to precise treatment."
While this system was primarily designed to help people with mental illness, its potential impact could go far beyond that.
Obviously, brain surgery is a high price to pay for "stimulated happiness," especially for the average person. However, it is possible that the components of the system could eventually be replaced by non-invasive ways to measure and stimulate brain activity.
What happens then? Will you be able to trust others with direct, constant, chronic access to your inner feelings? Will you be tempted to drown all your emotions in happiness?
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Of course, all this is possible only if the system is working.
The system is based on the old technology of deep brain stimulation (DBS).
First approved for the treatment of movement symptoms during Parkinson's disease, GSM relies on electrodes directly implanted in the brain to deliver electrical impulses. These impulses interact with local neurons and change their activity.
Just like throwing a pebble into a pond of still water, changes in this basic group of neurons pulsate through nerve circuits. Although neuroscientists have not fully understood the specific mechanisms, GSF appears to alleviate a variety of neurological disorders. At least some scattered tests have shown that.
In one of the first demonstrations of the power of fuels and lubricants, scientists turned the stimulation system on and off, asking a depressed patient how he was feeling. Incredibly, the patient only reported "high spirits" when the system was working - even though he realized that the scientists had activated electrical impulses.
This and other early success stories led to a recent large-scale clinical trial involving 90 people with depression. Bad news: On average, studies found no improvement after a year of treatment.
But Dr. Edward Chang, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, who is leading one of the projects, thinks this is just the beginning.
Most PMS systems treat depression in the same way, although people experience it differently. These systems immerse the brain in constant electrical impulses. The stimulation protocol is set by the doctor, not by the actual state of the patient's brain. According to Chang, it is important to create implants specifically designed to treat everyone individually - and only turn on the system when needed.
Mood Map
Inviting Dr. Omid G. Sani, an electrical engineer at the University of Southern California, the scientists developed an algorithm that translates brain waves into subjective senses of mood. The team worked with six epileptic patients with electrodes already implanted to trace the source of their seizures. For three weeks, the patient's brain activity was closely monitored while mood was monitored using a standard questionnaire.
By comparing these two types of information, the scientists devised an algorithm that extracted a small number of "neural predictors" - dynamic patterns of neural network activity - that could accurately predict a person's ever-changing feelings.
Several foci have emerged, including the limbic system, a previously identified center for mood and motivation management.
“These biomarkers of dynamic mood and algorithms that decode mood can provide a picture of the brain processes that underlie mood management,” concluded Sani.
It is also the first step towards personalized brain stimulation for depression.
According to Nature, Sani and Cheng have already developed a test system ready to be tested on humans. Looped systems like this have already been tested on several people, but Cheng emphasizes that these preliminary results need to be verified further.
Cross the line
A second team of scientists, led by the Massachusetts General Hospital neurosurgeon Emad Eskandar, took a slightly different approach.
The so-called transdiagnostic approach looks at the commonalities of various mental disorders, rather than a specific mood disorder. So scientists have developed algorithms that capture and highlight brain activity associated with well-known aspects of bad mood, such as increased anxiety, forgetfulness, and lack of empathy.
Eskandar believes that brain waves are only a small part of the data. His team also hopes to record the activity of individual neurons to identify those that lead to mental illness.
The goal is, of course, extremely ambitious. If successful, Eskandar will be able to track the symptoms of the disease, from single neurons to neural circuits of brain activity - and then it will be possible to compile a multilayered atlas for doctors who can use it to find the best treatment methods.
Studying their own capabilities, scientists presented at the conference an algorithm that detects when people lose sight of something due to attention deficit. Participants were asked to focus on a task - such as identifying emotions on computer-generated faces - while monitoring their brain activity. The algorithm eventually learned to identify patterns of neural activity associated with distraction.
When scientists stimulated the brains of volunteers in the decision-making region, their problem-solving performance improved markedly. The structures of neural activity of the "scattered brain" also disappeared.
The team is currently working on automating the process so that the algorithm directly induces stimulation during attention deficit.
Brain inside out
If these DARPA projects come to fruition, our treatment of mental illness will radically change. But scientists are worried that we might enter the minefield of ethics.
To fully implement these closed systems, the algorithm must always know the true feelings of the person. Although he does not report mood swings, the data is available to researchers and doctors. And if such treatments are ever commercialized, will patients be able to trust companies to keep their feelings and emotions safe and secure?
Some scientists also worry that the electrical happiness pill will change a person's ego.
“In any treatment for brain diseases, we risk making everyone the same, treating any deviation from the norm as a disease,” says Dr. Karen Rommelfanger of Emory University, talking about fuels and lubricants. “We want to see magic in all of this. But do we want to get rid of depression altogether? No, and shouldn't. Being human means experiencing a full range of experiences,”she says.
It will never be superfluous to talk about this. But, according to Chang, the short-term benefits - the ability to rid a person of this full range of symptoms - already make projects worthwhile. “This is the first time we're opening a window to the brain,” he says.
Ilya Khel