Researchers Develop AI-Driven Brain Stimulation System to Treat Mental Disorders
In a pilot study on humans, scientists from the University of Minnesota Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital showed that certain functions of the human brain linked to self-control and mental flexibility can be improved by combining artificial intelligence with targeted electrical brain stimulation.
Alik Widge, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and member of the Medical School's Addiction Medicine Group, is the senior author of the study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. The results come from a human study conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston involving 12 patients with epilepsy who had undergone brain surgery. They underwent a procedure in which hundreds of tiny electrodes are placed throughout the brain to record its activity and identify the source of seizures.
«Deficits in cognitive control, that is, the ability to override a default dominant response in favor of a more adaptive choice, are common in depression, anxiety, addiction and other mental disorders. Here we provide evidence that in patients undergoing intracranial epilepsy monitoring, feedback-controlled direct stimulation of the internal capsule or striatum, especially its dorsal regions, improves cognitive control during a conflict task. <…> Feedback-controlled enhancement of cognitive control may correct underlying cognitive deficits and help treat severe mental disorders», the study says.
In this study, Widge collaborated with Sydney Cash of Massachusetts General Hospital, a medical doctor and expert in epilepsy research, and Darin Dougherty, a medical doctor and expert in clinical brain stimulation. Together they identified a brain region, the internal capsule, which improved patients' mental functions when stimulated with a small amount of electrical energy. This part of the brain is responsible for cognitive control, the process of switching from one way of thinking or behavior to another, which is impaired in most mental disorders.
“An example is a person with depression who simply cannot shake a "stuck" negative thought. Because it plays a key role in mental illness, finding a way to improve it may become a new powerful approach to treating these diseases”
The team developed special algorithms so that after stimulation they could track patients' cognitive control abilities both through their actions and directly through their brain activity. The control method increased stimulation whenever patients performed worse on laboratory cognitive control tests.
“The system can read brain activity, "decode" it when the patient is struggling, and apply a small pulse of electrical stimulation to the brain to help them overcome the difficulty. I often use the analogy of an electric bicycle. When someone is pedaling but struggling, the bike senses this and amplifies it. We made an analogue of this for human mental functions”
The study is the first to show that:
- a specific human mental function linked to a mental disorder can be reliably improved with precisely targeted electrical stimulation
- within the structure of the brain's internal capsule there are specific parts that are particularly effective for improving cognitive functions
- the feedback algorithm used as a controller was twice as effective as stimulation at random times
Some patients besides epilepsy experienced severe anxiety. After receiving cognitive stimulation, they reported that their anxiety decreased, as they were able to distract themselves from stress and focus on what they wanted. According to Widge, this suggests the method could be used to treat patients with severe, drug-resistant anxiety, depression or other disorders.
“This could be a completely new approach to treating mental illness. Instead of trying to suppress symptoms, we could give patients a tool that allows them to control their own consciousness. We could return them to the position of the "driver" and let them feel a new sense of free will”
The research team is currently preparing for clinical trials. Because the goal of improving cognitive control has already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for deep brain stimulation, Widge said this research could be carried out with existing tools and devices once the trial is officially approved, and translating this help into current medical practice could be quick.
“The most remarkable thing about these results is that we can now conduct clinical trials to further demonstrate effectiveness, and then, hopefully, move on to helping treatment-resistant patients who desperately need additional interventions for their diseases”
