Rice team demonstrates miniature brain stimulator in humans
Tiny skull implant places Rice lab at the forefront of neurotech research.
Rice University engineers have developed the smallest implantable brain stimulator demonstrated in a human patient. Thanks to pioneering magnetoelectric power transfer technology, the pea-sized device developed in the Rice lab of Jacob Robinson in collaboration with Motif Neurotech and clinicians Dr. Sameer Sheth and Dr. Sunil Sheth can be powered wirelessly via an external transmitter and used to stimulate the brain through the dura ⎯ the protective membrane attached to the bottom of the skull.
The device, known as the Digitally programmable Over-brain Therapeutic (DOT), could revolutionize treatment for drug-resistant depression and other psychiatric or neurological disorders by providing a therapeutic alternative that offers greater patient autonomy and accessibility than current neurostimulation-based therapies and is less invasive than other brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).
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Great to see Rice's neurotech lab pushing the boundaries of minimally invasive brain stimulation. The pea-sized DOT device's use of magnetoelectric power transfer to wirelessly stimulate through the dura is a clever engineering feat — and demonstrating it in a human patient is a meaningful milestone. If it delivers on the promise of greater autonomy and accessibility for treatment-resistant depression, this could be a genuine step forward for the field.