Study: Personalized, closed-loop neuromodulation can (one day) become a “pacemaker for the brain”
This study points the way to a new paradigm that is desperately needed in psychiatry,” said Andrew Krystal, PhD, professor of psychiatry and member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “We’ve developed a precision-medicine approach that has successfully managed our patient’s treatment-resistant depression by identifying and modulating the circuit in her brain that’s uniquely associated with her symptoms.”
Previous clinical trials have shown limited success for treating depression with traditional deep brain stimulation (DBS), in part because most devices can only deliver constant electrical stimulation, usually only in one area of the brain. A major challenge for the field is that depression may involve different brain areas in different people.
What made this proof-of-principle trial successful was the discovery of a neural biomarker – a specific pattern of brain activity that indicates the onset of symptoms – and the team’s ability to customize a new DBS device to respond only when it recognizes that pattern. The device then stimulates a different area of the brain circuit, creating on-demand, immediate therapy that is unique to both the patient’s brain and the neural circuit causing her illness.
This customized approach alleviated the patient’s depression symptoms almost immediately, Krystal said, in contrast to the four- to eight-week delay of standard treatment models and has lasted over the 15 months she has had the implanted device. For ...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation biomarker brain circuit brain patterns brain stimulation closed-loop therapy deep-brain-stimulation neural biomarker neuromodulation neuropsychiatric pacemaker for the brain precision me Source Type: blogs
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