How we can use technology to fight brain disorders
[Music]
when my father’s grandfather was born
life expectancy ranged around 35 years
people died from infections cancer or
metabolic syndromes
since then life expectancy has
more than doubled and reached 82 years
in the european
union now diseases that were once deadly
don’t play a big role anymore
but there is one cluster of diseases
that does not show this trend
disorders of the brain
25 years ago nine percent of
all invalidity pensions were paid due to
depression
or anxiety today
this share has increased to 43
and what is even more alarming is that
the number of teenagers
who show symptoms of depression has more
than doubled
in the last 10 years it is estimated
that more than 1 billion people on this
planet suffer from a disorder of the
brain
for example depression anxiety
addiction adhd alzheimer’s
parkinson’s psychosis or epilepsy
despite all progress in medicine why
don’t we have effective tools to treat
disorders of the brain
the reason is that despite all
technological progress
we still don’t have the answers to very
fundamental questions
for example how does the brain create
what we
perceive as reality and what are the
neural substrates
of brain functions affected by
depression anxiety or addiction
the complexity of the brain and the
variability
across people seems prohibitive to
answer
any of these questions but there is hope
we have now entered an era in which
clinical neurotechnology may help to
answer some of these questions
neurotechnology is defined as any
artificial means
to record analyze or modulate brain
activity
and there’s been great progress in
development
of tools that allow us to measure brain
activity at
unprecedented temporal and spatial
resolution
by analyzing this activity in real time
and translating it into a control signal
of a digital device man machine
interaction
has now reached a new level using such a
brain computer interface
or bci it is now possible to control a
robot
or a drone just by thinking
the first clinically meaningful bci
was introduced in the late 90s when a
patient
who suffered from als and was locked in
so he was not able to speak or move and
he depended
on artificial respiration
could select single letters on the
screen just by modulating his electric
brain activity
with this system he could write a whole
letter
in parallel implantable brain computer
interfaces were developed
for reconstruction of complex movements
here you see a woman who suffered a
brain stem stroke
and who was incapable of moving any of
her four limbs
in a meaningful functional way after
implantation of a neural implant she was
able to control this robotic arm
in three dimensions and for the first
time grasp a cup of coffee
and drink it
however implantation entails the risk of
bleedings and infections
there is no certification for long-term
use of such devices
and none of these patients have used the
system
outside of the laboratory in their daily
life
there are also other disadvantages when
implanting such devices for example the
user cannot remove the device at will
and implanting such a device in hundreds
of thousands or even millions of people
raises a number of very complex
neuroethical questions
together with my team i have developed a
non-invasive brain computer interface
that does not
depend on any implantation here you see
a number of
patients who suffered from a spinal cord
injury
they are all unable to move their
fingers they cannot grasp
anything for example a pen a cup or a
piece
of paper we have equipped these patients
with a neural
exoskeleton that translates their
intention to move their paralyzed
fingers
into actual movements and with this
system
these patients can now grasp these
different objects of daily living
and manipulate them the system
could be also used outside of the
laboratory so the people could leave
the lab and go to a restaurant order a
donut
and eat for the first time with a fork
so we asked the patients
what they would like to do with their
new ability
and this man he asked for a plate of
potato chips that he hasn’t eaten for
many years
independently here you see how this
system
really has an impact
on its quality of life
we have also used the system in chronic
stroke patients who were unable to move
the fingers
they used the system for a whole month
on a daily basis
and after one month we were very
surprised to find
that some of these patients were able to
move their paralyzed fingers
even without the exoskeleton when we
looked into their brains using advanced
neuroimaging we found
that their brains have reorganized and
rewired
in response to using this neural
exoskeleton brain activity shifted
to those areas that were connected to
the exoskeleton
the same principle may also work in the
treatment
of other disorders of the brain
however in contrast to movements we
cannot ask
a patient to be depressed or anxious
and then stop it like a movement
but there is a solution or there might
be a solution using virtual reality
whole body variable sensors and advanced
non-invasive
brain stimulation using these tools
we can now specifically manipulate the
sensory input
and track complex decision making and
behavior
while brain activity is recorded
using machine learning typically used in
artificial intelligence
for example deep neural networks we can
now detect
and identify the hidden patterns of
brain activity
that underlie the process of how we
build our internal models of the world
to assess these models
we need to record brain activity at the
highest possible
temporal and spatial resolution
and while implantation can help us to
characterize
these hidden patterns it is now possible
to measure and assess these patterns
non-invasively using quantum sensors
quantum sensors are working at room
temperature
they are variable and they provide a
much higher
spatial resolution than established
techniques like electroencephalography
although there are still a number of
technical challenges that have to be
solved
it is very obvious that using quantum
sensors
has many advantages over implantation
despite progress in biosignal sensors
we have also developed advanced brain
stimulation techniques
these tech these devices reach
unprecedented spatial resolution using
electromagnetic fields
we can use these systems to target
large-scale brain networks that are
affected by depression
or dementia with support of the european
research council we have now merged all
these techniques
in a closed-loop real-time system and
you’re working on using the system
in patients with a variety of disorders
of the brain
to see what is already possible now
let’s listen
a moment to ms felski kruger who
suffered from an incapacitating
depression for more than a year
and who was treated with non-invasive
brain stimulation at the charity
and
foreign
i am convinced that the next chapter in
clinical neurotechnology will be a
turning point in how we treat disorders
of the brain
provided we implement a firm
neuroethical framework
keeping an eye on critical issues such
as privacy
data security and accessibility
neurotechnology may become the biggest
game changer
in recent human history thank you
[Applause]
[Music]