Bidirectional Brain/Neural-Computer Interaction for Restoration of Mental Health

Introduction

More than 1 billion people worldwide suffer from compromised mental health due to a brain disorder, such as depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or dementia. While already accounting for 19% of all years lived with disability, the relative share of these disorders is further increasing. Currently, due to the complexity of the human mind and brain, effective and side effect-free treatment options are lacking.

Need for Effective Treatments

To establish such options would not only require identifying the underlying neural substrates of clinical symptoms, but also effective means to directly modulate them.

Challenges in Neuroimaging

While advanced neuroimaging could link specific clinical symptoms to the metabolic activity of cortical and subcortical networks or neural circuits, it is unclear how this metabolic activity translates to the continuously evolving dynamics of widespread brain oscillatory activity.

Potential Solutions

A possible way to identify and target such oscillatory brain states would be the use of millimeter-precise and brain state-dependent neuromodulation, e.g., using electric or magnetic fields. However, this could not be established yet because reliable and accurate assessment of brain oscillations is impeded by stimulation artifacts.

Limitations of Current Tools

Moreover, there are no stimulation tools available that provide sufficient focality and steerability to target dynamic brain states at multiple locations with millisecond precision.

Proposed Approach

Building on our previous work, we will overcome these limitations and establish a new approach that combines quantum sensors offering unprecedented accuracy with closed-loop temporal interference magnetic stimulation to target cortical and subcortical areas at millimeter- and millisecond precision.

Validation and Implementation

The system will be validated in persons diagnosed with depression, OCD, addiction, and dementia. Finally, the paradigm will be implemented in a portable system to foster fast adoption in clinical environments.