The latest brain-computer interface could help people recover from serious conditions depression. Motif Neurotech announced Monday that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved a human study to test the company’s blueberry size. the brain an implant that sits in the skull and provides electrical stimulation to treat it depression.
The Houston-based startup, founded in 2022, is part of a budding industry pursuing technology to read and interpret brain signals. While other companies are exploring such technology, like Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Paradromicsand Balance itthey develop devices that enable people with paralysis to communicate and use computers, Motif aims to reduce depression in people who have not benefited from medication.
The company’s device is implanted in the skull just above the dura, the brain’s protective lining. It targets the central executive network, the part of the brain that is responsible for higher cognitive function and is dysfunctional in major depressive disorder. The implant provides specific stimulus patterns to “turn on” this network.
The Motif device would allow patients to receive therapeutic brain stimulation at home. “Through repeated electrical stimulation, we think we can drive that neuroplasticity that builds strong connections within the central executive network in depressed patients, so they can get out of bed in the morning, call their friends, go to the gym,” says Jacob Robinson, founder and CEO of Motif.
Courtesy of Motif
Electrical stimulation has been used for decades to treat depression, and the Motif method is just the latest. Electroconvulsive or “shock” therapy began in the 1930s and is still used today in cases where patients do not benefit from antidepressants. Deep brain stimulation, which involves surgically implanting electrodes in the brain, is occasionally used experimentally but is not FDA approved. A less powerful stimulation known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, was approved in 2008. Although it can be very effective, it requires a long course of five treatments a week for six weeks.
A study from 2021 found that over a 12-month period in the United States, nearly 9 million adults were being treated for major depression, and of those, nearly 3 million appeared to have treatment-resistant depression, when symptoms did not improve after at least two, and often more, antidepressants.
The Motif device can be implanted in a 20-minute outpatient procedure without requiring brain surgery. It’s powered by wireless magnetic technology that Robinson developed while at Rice University and is charged by a baseball cap that patients will wear while receiving stimulation.
