{"id":136594,"date":"2022-03-11T00:35:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T08:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/researchers-boost-human-mental-function-with-brain-stimulation"},"modified":"2022-03-11T00:35:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T08:35:16","slug":"researchers-boost-human-mental-function-with-brain-stimulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/researchers-boost-human-mental-function-with-brain-stimulation","title":{"rendered":"Researchers boost human mental function with brain stimulation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/researchers-boost-human-mental-function-with-brain-stimulation3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a pilot human study, researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital show it is possible to improve specific human brain functions related to self-control and mental flexibility by merging artificial intelligence with targeted electrical brain stimulation.<\/p>\n<p>Alik Widge, MD, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and member of the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction at the U of M Medical School, is the senior author of the research published in <i>Nature Biomedical Engineering<\/i>. The findings come from a human study conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston among 12 patients undergoing <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/brain+surgery\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">brain surgery<\/a> for epilepsy\u2014a procedure that places hundreds of tiny electrodes throughout the brain to record its activity and identify where seizures originate.<\/p>\n<p>In this study, Widge collaborated with Massachusetts General Hospital\u2019s Sydney Cash, MD, Ph.D., an expert in epilepsy research; and Darin Dougherty, MD, an expert in clinical brain stimulation. Together, they identified a brain region\u2014the internal capsule\u2014that improved patients\u2019 mental function when stimulated with small amounts of electrical energy. That part of the brain is responsible for cognitive control\u2014the process of shifting from one thought pattern or behavior to another, which is impaired in most <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/mental+illnesses\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">mental illnesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a pilot human study, researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital show it is possible to improve specific human brain functions related to self-control and mental flexibility by merging artificial intelligence with targeted electrical brain stimulation. Alik Widge, MD, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and member of the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}