First up, IEEE Spectrum:
These algorithms spot mood changes before you do, and could someday tell a stimulator to zap your brain to treat disorders
A man with depression is driving to work when his mood darkens, and the familiar inklings of anxiety begin to creep in. His brain cells start to fire in a pattern that has, in the past, led him down a dark, dangerous mental road. But this man has a set of electrodes implanted in his brain, and wireless software nearby that’s closely monitoring his neural activity. Algorithms recognize the shift in his brain waves and order up a therapeutic dose of electrical stimulation, zapping the faulty circuits. The man arrives at work calm and stable.*And from Mysterious Universe:
The technology in this scenario doesn’t exist yet, but it’s the vision of Maryam Shanechi, an electrical engineer at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, and Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco. Shanechi presented their progress this week in Nashville, Tennessee, at a neurotechnology meeting held by DARPA, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense.
So far, Shanechi and her team have successfully developed algorithms that decoded the brain activity associated with mood changes in seven people. Now, they’re figuring out how to stimulate the brain to affect those mood changes, she reported at the meeting.
When the two pieces of the technology come together, they would form a closed-loop system that puts stimulation therapy decisions in the hands of an algorithm. “We are developing a precise, personalized therapy that takes readings of brain activity, and, based on that, makes decisions on stimulation parameters,” Shanechi said in her presentation in Nashville on Wednesday.
Electrical stimulation techniques are typically administered at an appointed time that has nothing to do with the patient’s state of mind—an “open loop” approach. “They turn it on and see how it affects symptoms,” Shanechi said in an interview with Spectrum after the meeting.
A closed loop system, however, employs algorithms to constantly monitor the patient’s brain activity, and order stimulation the moment the patient needs it, with parameters specific to the patient’s neural activity....MORE
Smoking Psychedelic Toad Milk May Help Depression
No, you’re not going to need a really small stool to sit on while you milk them, but you may want to check with a medical professional before trying to smoke the milk of psychedelic toads … which a new study claims can alleviate depression for up to a month. How? Take a deep, non-toad-milk breath and read on.
That’s the unwieldy but encouraging title of a new study published in the journal Psychopharmacology. The “toad” is the Colorado River toad (Incilius Alvarius), also known as Bufo alvarius or the Sonoran Desert toad, is well-known for its poisonous secretions that can kill predators and get humans high. The largest native toad in the U.S. can reach up to seven inches in length and has the unusual ability to obtain water by osmotic absorption through its abdomen. Of course, what most people and researchers are interested in is the 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) found in the toad’s secretions from warts on its mouth and glands on its legs. That “milk” is a psychedelic tryptamine related to DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine), the psychoactive ingredient in the increasingly popular ayahuasca brews....MORE“A single inhalation of vapor from dried toad secretion containing 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) in a naturalistic setting is related to sustained enhancement of satisfaction with life, mindfulness-related capacities, and a decrement of psychopathological symptoms.”
Our Hero
The Colorado River toad / Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
