Nature Sub-Journal: Enhance human mental function by stimulating the brain

In a preliminary human study, researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital stated that by combining artificial intelligence with targeted brain stimulation , It is possible to improve certain human brain functions related to self-control and thinking flexibility
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Alik Widge, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and member of the Addiction Medicine Discovery Group at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, is the senior author of the study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering
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These findings come from a human study conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on 12 patients undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy

In this study, Widge collaborated with Sydney Cash, MD, an epilepsy research expert at Massachusetts General Hospital; Darin Dougherty, MD, a clinical brain stimulation expert
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Together, they identified a brain area-the internal capsule-that when a small amount of electrical energy is used to stimulate the patient, it can improve the patient's mental function

"An example might include people with depression who cannot get rid of'stuck' negative thoughts
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Because it is so important for mental illness, finding a way to improve it may be a powerful new way to treat these diseases," Widge said

The team developed algorithms so that after stimulation, they can track the patient’s cognitive control abilities from the patient’s behavior and directly from their brain activity
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Whenever a patient performs poorly in a laboratory test of cognitive control, the controller method increases stimulation

Vige said: "This system can read brain activity.
When the patient encounters difficulties, it will "decode" the brain activity, and then apply small pulses of electrical stimulation to the brain to help them overcome the difficulties
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This research shows for the first time:

• A specific human mental function related to mental illness can be reliably enhanced by precisely directed electrical stimulation;

• There are certain sub-parts in the internal brain sac structure that are particularly effective for cognitive enhancement; and

• The effect of the closed-loop algorithm as a controller is twice that of random excitation
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Some patients have obvious anxiety in addition to epilepsy
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When given cognitive enhancement stimulation, they report that their anxiety has improved because they are more able to transfer their thoughts from pain to what they want

"This may be a completely new way to treat mental illness
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We can give patients a tool that allows them to control their thoughts instead of trying to suppress symptoms," Widge said

The research team is preparing for clinical trials
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Because the goal is to improve cognitive control of deep brain stimulation that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Widge said that this study can use existing tools and equipment, and once the trial is officially approved, the translation of this attention to current medical practice can be rapid

Doherty said: "The beauty of these findings is that we are now able to conduct clinical trials to further prove their effectiveness, and then hopefully help those resistant patients who desperately need additional intervention to treat the disease
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Original search:

Closed-loop enhancement and neural decoding of cognitive control in humans