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'Window on the Brain': US Starts Testing Mood Changing Implants on Humans

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Two scientific teams from the University of California and Massachusetts General Hospital, funded by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), are using “closed-loop” implants to create algorithms to detect various mood disorders and “shake” the brain back to a healthy state, Nature wrote.

The neural implants, which generate electrical pulses that regulate human feelings and behavior, could stimulate the brain to treat mental disorders, including dementia and Alzheimer’s.

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The device, believed to be able to treat nervous conditions like depression and post-traumatic syndromes, has already been tested on six volunteers.

Experts hope that, unlike previous attempts at deep-brain stimulation, closed-loop stimulation will provide better long-term treatment for mood disorders, as the new generation of algorithms is more personalized and based on physiological signals, rather than a doctor's judgement, Nature wrote.

Edward Chang, a neuroscientist, who is leading one of the projects, believes that data from the brain implant trials could help develop non-invasive therapies for mental illnesses that stimulate the brain through the skull.

“The exciting thing about these technologies is that for the first time we’re going to have a window on the brain where we know what’s happening in the brain when someone relapses,” Dr. Chung told Nature.

According to media reports earlier this month, a team of University of Southern California neurologists demonstrated the use of a brain implant to improve human memory.

READ MORE: New Study Finds Brain Scans Can Identify Suicidal Thought Patterns

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