BRAIN Initiative Gains Momentum In Anxiety, Depression Research

[ Watch the Video: Untangling The Brain Circuits In Mental Illness ]

Alan McStravick for redorbit.com Your Universe online

Just over a year ago, the White House announced a new initiative aimed at gaining a broader understanding of how the human brain works. The BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative will present new and novel ways to treat, prevent and cure brain disorders like Alzheimers, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury.

A year on and we are now learning that scientists and physicians at UC San Francisco are advancing on their work, focusing on gaining understanding and developing treatment for some of the more common and debilitating psychiatric disorders.

First up on the list are certain anxiety disorders and major depression. This course of study was one of the first research projects launched after the announcement of BRAIN. It is believed their work will pioneer neural stimulation which will help the brain to unlearn the patterns of these disorders that lead to them becoming more and more debilitating to the sufferer.

The UCSF research is being funded via the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of that agencys new program, SUBNETS (Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies), which officially launches on June 1, 2014. DARPA hopes that this work will first find practical use in the treatment of veterans and active duty military personnel who are suffering from anxiety and depression as a result of their military service experience.

The researchers have devised a strategy which they hope will help them to first identify brain signaling pathways that are associated with the two conditions. Once this has been achieved, they believe they then can produce devices that will precisely target those pathways in order to provide stimulation therapy meant to help the brain strengthen alternative circuits. The brain, a very resilient organ, possesses the capability for neural remodeling and learning. By taking advantage of this fact, researchers believe they can allow the newly strengthened circuits to bypass the affected circuits and in so doing eliminate the negative psychiatric symptoms.

The project, intended to run over a five-year period, received initial funding of $12 million. If the team is able to reach certain benchmarks and milestones, they will be eligible for additional supplemental funding of $26 million. The entire project will require work by more than a dozen scientists, engineers and physicians at UC Berkeley, Cornell University and New York University. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will also work on the project under a cooperative agreement.

Human brain recording can now reveal aspects of mental illness that have been inaccessible to scientists and doctors, said UCSF neurosurgeon Edward F. Chang, MD, team leader on the new project and a world leader in the use of brain recording technology for the surgical treatment of epilepsy. By analyzing patterns of interaction among brain regions known to be involved in mental illness we can get a more detailed look than ever before at what might be malfunctioning, and we can then develop technology to correct it.

The project, in addition to bringing much needed relief to those who suffer from anxiety and depression, will also minimize the staggering economic impact of the conditions. Anxiety disorders, for example, have been estimated to cost over $42 billion annually in the US alone. That figure represents one-third of the nations total mental health care costs.

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BRAIN Initiative Gains Momentum In Anxiety, Depression Research