Alik WidgeNeural Engineer | Brain Stimulation Psychiatrist | Cognitive Neuroscientist

First-of-its-kind brain chip to treat mental disorders being developed at the U of M

Name: First-of-its-kind brain chip to treat mental disorders being developed at the U of M
Uploaded: 2020-10-15T20:51:08+00:00
Duration: 1 min 12 s
Channel: Alik Widge
Description: In a news segment, Dr. Alik Widge discusses a new brain‑implant project at the University of Minnesota Medical School aimed at treating severe…

15 Oct 2020 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:12

In a news segment, Dr. Alik Widge discusses a new brain‑implant project at the University of Minnesota Medical School aimed at treating severe, treatment‑resistant mental health conditions such as depression, PTSD, and addiction. Patients in Widge’s clinic often exhaust dozens of medications and therapies without relief, highlighting a critical unmet need. The research team, funded by a $6 million National Institute of Mental Health grant, is developing a tiny implantable chip placed near the collarbone with sub‑cutaneous leads to electrodes on the skull. The device can monitor brain activity at millisecond resolution, detect when neural circuits become out of sync, and deliver a precise, low‑energy “nudge” of stimulation to restore healthy network dynamics. This closed‑loop, real‑time approach represents a novel mechanism of action that could directly reconnect dysfunctional brain circuits, offering new hope for patients whose disorders have not responded to existing treatments.

Chapters

There may be new hope for people who suffer from mental health conditions like severe depression, PTSD, or addiction.
A team at the University of Minnesota Medical School is creating a first-ever brain implant that may help fix the root of the problem in the brain itself. Alex Yokich explains.
Every week in our treatment-resistant disorders clinic, I've got folks coming to me who say, "Look, here's the laundry list of 20, 30 medications I've tried." Here's the therapy programs I've done. I've still got this and it's still killing me slowly, minute by minute.
It's not just in your head. Dr. Alik Widge says for people with severe mental health disorders, brainwaves are actually out of sync and the key is getting that circuit reconnected. So his team is developing a tiny chip about this size that has big potential to target very specific parts of the brain.
That one critical tiny chip that can read the brain signals and interpret and say, now is the moment when you need to deliver that single little nudge of stimulation to get that network back into its healthy state. This one little piece is what's, is what nobody's ever tried to do.
The Hughes Medical School just received a $6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to create build and test the device. Dr. Widge says it would be implanted near a patient's collarbone with wires underneath the skin leading up to electrodes in the skull.
It can actually watch and sense brain activity moment to moment, millisecond to millisecond. This would very much be the first device to exploit this kind of new mechanism of action, this new idea of really reconnecting and altering brain circuits and their communication.
He says it would deliver 1,000 times less energy to the brain than existing treatments. They hope it will be ready for human trials in about 5 years. In Minneapolis, Alex Yokich, 5 Eyewitness News.