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]