Brain Implant That Could Boost Mood By Using Ultrasound To Go Under NHS Trial (theguardian.com) 37
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A groundbreaking NHS trial will attempt to boost patients' mood using a brain-computer-interface that directly alters brain activity using ultrasound. The device, which is designed to be implanted beneath the skull but outside the brain, maps activity and delivers targeted pulses of ultrasound to "switch on" clusters of neurons. Its safety and tolerability will be tested on about 30 patient in the 6.5 million-pound trial, funded by the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria).
[...] The latest trial will test a device developed by the US-based non-profit Forest Neurotech. In contrast to invasive implants, in which electrodes are inserted into a specific location in the brain, Forest 1 uses ultrasound to read-out and modify activity. Aria describes the device as "the most advanced BCI in the world" due to its ability to modify activity across multiple regions simultaneously. This widens potential future applications to a huge patient population affected by conditions such as depression, anxiety and epilepsy, which are all "circuit level" conditions rather than being localized in a specific brain region.
The NHS trial will recruit patients who, due to brain injury, have had part of their skull temporarily removed to relieve a critical buildup of pressure in the brain. This means the device can be tested without having to perform surgery. When placed beneath the skull, or in individuals with a skull defect, ultrasound can detect tiny changes in blood flow to produce 3D maps of brain activity with a spatial resolution of about 100 times that of a typical fMRI scan. The same implant can deliver focused ultrasound to mechanically nudge neurons towards firing, providing a way to remotely dial activity up at precise locations. Participants will wear the device on their scalp at the site of the skull defect for two hours. Their brain activity will be measured and researchers will test whether patients' mood and feelings of motivation can be reliably altered.
There are safety considerations, as ultrasound can cause tissue to heat up. Prof Elsa Fouragnan, a neuroscientist at the University of Plymouth, which is collaborating on the project, said: "What we're trying to minimize is heat. There's a safety and efficacy trade-off." She added that it would also be important to ensure that personality or decision-making were not altered in unintended ways -- for instance, making someone more impulsive. The study will run for three and a half years starting from March, with the first eight months focused on securing regulatory approval. If successful, Forest hopes to move into a full clinical trial for a condition such as depression. Aimun Jamjoom, a consultant neurosurgeon at the Barking, Havering and Redbridge university hospitals NHS trust, who is leading the project, said: "[T]he ability to offer a safer form of surgery is very exciting. If you look at conditions like depression or epilepsy, [up to] a third of these patients just don't get better. It's those groups where a technology like this could be a life-changing solution."
[...] The latest trial will test a device developed by the US-based non-profit Forest Neurotech. In contrast to invasive implants, in which electrodes are inserted into a specific location in the brain, Forest 1 uses ultrasound to read-out and modify activity. Aria describes the device as "the most advanced BCI in the world" due to its ability to modify activity across multiple regions simultaneously. This widens potential future applications to a huge patient population affected by conditions such as depression, anxiety and epilepsy, which are all "circuit level" conditions rather than being localized in a specific brain region.
The NHS trial will recruit patients who, due to brain injury, have had part of their skull temporarily removed to relieve a critical buildup of pressure in the brain. This means the device can be tested without having to perform surgery. When placed beneath the skull, or in individuals with a skull defect, ultrasound can detect tiny changes in blood flow to produce 3D maps of brain activity with a spatial resolution of about 100 times that of a typical fMRI scan. The same implant can deliver focused ultrasound to mechanically nudge neurons towards firing, providing a way to remotely dial activity up at precise locations. Participants will wear the device on their scalp at the site of the skull defect for two hours. Their brain activity will be measured and researchers will test whether patients' mood and feelings of motivation can be reliably altered.
There are safety considerations, as ultrasound can cause tissue to heat up. Prof Elsa Fouragnan, a neuroscientist at the University of Plymouth, which is collaborating on the project, said: "What we're trying to minimize is heat. There's a safety and efficacy trade-off." She added that it would also be important to ensure that personality or decision-making were not altered in unintended ways -- for instance, making someone more impulsive. The study will run for three and a half years starting from March, with the first eight months focused on securing regulatory approval. If successful, Forest hopes to move into a full clinical trial for a condition such as depression. Aimun Jamjoom, a consultant neurosurgeon at the Barking, Havering and Redbridge university hospitals NHS trust, who is leading the project, said: "[T]he ability to offer a safer form of surgery is very exciting. If you look at conditions like depression or epilepsy, [up to] a third of these patients just don't get better. It's those groups where a technology like this could be a life-changing solution."
Re: (Score:1)
Good luck with that. Corruption comes in all colours, not just orange.
Re:Finally, we can cure Trump Derangement Syndrome (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting. It may become possible for an external agency to change your mood without your knowledge.
No matter how awful things really are, can't you see the citizens singing, dancing, making jokes, and going about their happy lives? Why both threatening people to make them pretend to be happy, when you can just turn a rheostat and actually MAKE them happy?
Re: Finally, we can cure Trump Derangement Syndrom (Score:2)
Larry Niven's science fiction comes true? (Score:5, Informative)
Wikipedia: Wirehead (science fiction)
In Larry Niven's Known Space stories, a "wirehead" is someone who has been fitted with an electronic brain implant known as a "droud" in order to stimulate the pleasure centers of their brain. Wireheading is the most addictive habit known (Louis Wu is the only given example of a recovered addict), and wireheads usually die from neglecting their basic needs in favour of the ceaseless pleasure. Wireheading is so powerful and easy that it becomes an evolutionary pressure, selecting against that portion of humanity without self-control. A wirehead's death is central to Niven's story "Death by Ecstasy", published in 1969 under the title The Organleggers, and a main character in the book Ringworld Engineers is a former wirehead trying to quit.
Re: (Score:3)
The really scary part was there were devices that could stimulate the pleasure centres of the brain remotely. They could be used for everything from pranks to manipulating unsuspecting victims by making them feel good when near you.
Re: (Score:2)
Finally a Tasp in real life, just hook me up to a feeding tube!
This is a little different (Score:3)
It's not so much hitting pleasure centers as it is the parts related to motivation and reward. It won't make you feel happy like a hit of some drug, it'll make it so when you do things that *should* make you happy you're not indifferent.
That's the thing with depression, it's not sadness per se, it's more like indifference. The inability to feel good in the 1st place. It's why anti-depr
I want a drood! (Score:2)
I've been waiting 40+ years for one.
Sound does affect mood for me (Score:3)
Music is just about the only thing that motivates me nowadays (after burnout) and it varies from classic to metal and jazz to trance, but it's usually rock and house or above when I do chores or exercise.
It's not ultrasound, but sometimes I do like it ultraloud. :-p
Wireheads (Score:3)
The beginning of wireheads, the nuke option that will clear the world of all other drug addicts.
Anyone else here read the Ringworld?
Re: Wireheads (Score:2)
Ultrasound? (Score:2)
Have they tried boosting mood using normal sound? Like music.
Re: (Score:2)
Or eating a balanced diet containing all the precursors to neurotransmitters?
Push a button for happiness (Score:2)
You do less, it does more . It's the ideal that "most" people reach for without question. People are lazy. Doing things for losers.
So whatever promises happiness without effort, choices, or even a definition will surely have buyers.
Re: (Score:1)
Let's not forget the 'someone profits' aspect - which presumably is the underlying reason to push the 'why do it yourself when we can do it for you, but better?' mentality.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And to think: (Score:5, Interesting)
RFK Jr., recovering heroin addict and victim of a brain worm is the HHS chief now.
Anti-Vaxxer and crackpot (Score:1)
Oh also I've (Score:1)
never been a fan of Joe Rogan, but lots liked him because he was simple dumb fun. I've seen posts on other threads & forums complaining about how he's not fun anymore. All he does is going on about Trump & anti-vax with a smattering of trans stuff. All the dumb fun is gone. He might as well be Ben Shapiro these days...
It's like how Churches are collapsing because people don't go to church to be told to vote Republican.
We know perfectly well that our enemies are purposefully pushing anti-vax and othe
Soma? (Score:2)
Brave New World? They might as well call it Soma and be done with it?
check this video (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts... [youtube.com]
We just cant help enslaving ourselves (Score:2)
I can see this was made with good intention. Clinical depression looks like a living hell. Any relief is welcome, but learning how to manage day to day negative feelings, regulate emotions before you need an intervention, why isn't this a huge part of a general education? The amount of useless crap I was taught made me more knowledgeable, learning and developing practises for physical and mental health and well being would have made me happier.
Re: (Score:3)
Wait, what? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Just slapping in a 60w cleaning transducer would, one assumes, replace depression with bloody cholesterol froth fa
The headache situation? (Score:2)
Excellent (Score:2)
Bye Neuralink! (Score:2)
Oops. No invasive wires into the brain. Must be much less costly.
Can't wait until multi-source targeted soundwaves that can can reach anywhere in the brain to stimulate.
I wonder how Neuralink shares are after this announcement?
We've had these mood implants for decades (Score:2)
Only minor problem: How do you get it back out?
Salad Mixxer commercial [youtube.com]