CenBRAIN Neurotech’s New Publication in Frontiers in Psychiatry

Titled “Challenges and future trends in wearable closed-loop neuromodulation to efficiently treat methamphetamine addiction”, is a new contribution that has been published in Frontiers in Psychiatry Journal, where we identified the challenges of implementing intelligent closed-loop transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) modulation based on multimodal EEG-fNIRS.

Congratulations to research professor Yun-Hsuan Chen and to the paper’s co-authors (Jie Yang, Hemmings Wu, Kevin T. Beier, and Mohamad Sawan) for this excellent achievement.

Reference

Chen Y-H, Yang J, Wu H, Beier KT and Sawan M (2023) Challenges and future trends in wearable closed-loop neuromodulation to efficiently treat methamphetamine addiction. Front. Psychiatry 14:1085036. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1085036

Abstract

Achieving abstinence from drugs is a long journey and can be particularly challenging in the case of methamphetamine, which has a higher relapse rate than other drugs. Therefore, real-time monitoring of patients’ physiological conditions before and when cravings arise to reduce the chance of relapse might help to improve clinical outcomes. Conventional treatments, such as behavior therapy and peer support, often cannot provide timely intervention, reducing the efficiency of these therapies. To more effectively treat methamphetamine addiction in real-time, we propose an intelligent closed-loop transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) neuromodulation system based on multimodal electroencephalogram–functional near-infrared spectroscopy (EEG-fNIRS) measurements. This review summarizes the essential modules required for a wearable system to treat addiction efficiently. First, the advantages of neuroimaging over conventional techniques such as analysis of sweat, saliva, or urine for addiction detection are discussed. The knowledge to implement wearable, compact, and user-friendly closed-loop systems with EEG and fNIRS are reviewed. The features of EEG and fNIRS signals in patients with methamphetamine use disorder are summarized. EEG biomarkers are categorized into frequency and time domain and topography-related parameters, whereas for fNIRS, hemoglobin concentration variation and functional connectivity of corticesare described. Following this, the applications of two commonly used neuromodulation technologies, transcranial direct current stimulation and TMS, in patients with methamphetamine use disorder are introduced. The challenges of implementing intelligent closed-loop TMS modulation based on multimodal EEG-fNIRS are summarized, followed by a discussion of potential research directions and the promising future of this approach, including potential applications to other substance use disorders.

Fig.1: Proposed intelligent closed-loop TMS neuromodulation to treat methamphetamine addiction