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End of depression? The first brain implant to treat depression starts human trials

End of depression? The first brain implant to treat depression starts human trials
Carol Vanzyl

Carol Vanzyl

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It has come to my attention that doctors in St Louis unveiled the technology in September by shaving off a small part of a patient’s skull and replacing it with electrodes. By implanting these electrodes, they hope that small and short electric pulses could alleviate the patient’s severe depression by easing the condition in the brain.

The start-up Inner Cosmos performed the surgery and is currently just one of several businesses focusing on this technology. Of course, one such business, Neuralink owned by none other than Elon Musk. Although it appears that the business has been accountable for some controversy even though they have claimed that they trained monkeys to use their minds to play video games. 

At the core of tech companies and growing is Inner Cosmos developing implanted devices for the brain. The first-of-its-kind trial uses implants in the skull’s bone to treat depression. It is a significant accomplishment for scientists’ efforts to utilize hardware to treat human mood disorders.

The first brain implant to treat depression starts human trials

The hardware created by Inner Cosmos is around the size of a penny. The aim is for a pulse to be sent to a patient’s left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which then measures neuronal activity, determining the correct amount of stimulation. It occurs for around 15 minutes once a day.

The focus is that the first trial will continue for a year while considering involving a few more patients. 

However, how to stimulate the best part of the brain to achieve the desired outcome is currently being determined. But that being said Inner Cosmos technique targets another area that also features another method – transcranial magnetic stimulation. 

Although it’s in its early days, this is a unique technology that can be the answer to many depression patients that has lost hope.

The aim is for a non-invasive surgery to achieve the best results, and some businesses are focusing on entirely surgery-free methods. For Inner Cosmos’ first time, the device is a bit larger than what they aim for their final product.

It’s not an entirely new idea, as similar techniques to treat Parkinson’s and epilepsy have been used for years, but it’s still very new to depression treatment.

Elon Musk disclosed that Neuralink’s brain implant device would only undergo human trials within six months.

It could be incredible if everything goes according to plan for Elon Musk after his show-and-tell presentation regarding the technology. The presentation showed how a test monkey has learned to use its brain to move a computer’s cursor.

It allowed the monkey to say something and spell words, but seeing the small implant on the live stream was difficult. Obviously, the animal couldn’t actively spell words because it doesn’t understand our language. It was still able to operate a computer with its thoughts.

“More companies are trying to do less and less invasive things because that always makes a product easier to adopt and the path to market shorter,” said Max Hodak, former chief operating officer of Neuralink, who started his startup Science Inc. “But I think that long term, the most astonishing products will require an implant.”

Carol Vanzyl

Carol Vanzyl

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