In a small pilot study, UNC School of Medicine researchers led by Flavio Frohlich, Ph.D., used a new closed-loop system to measure the electrical brain patterns of individual patients and then stimulate those patterns with a weak electrical current, resulting in significantly improved symptoms of major depressive disorder.
Our brains are full of electricity, billions of signals being sent each day whether we're exercising, eating, singing, reading, working, sleeping, or just relaxing. And when we're sitting with our thoughts—awake with our eyes closed—particular electrical patterns at 8–12 Hz dominate our brains. They are called alpha oscillations.
In people who battle major depressive disorder, these alpha waves in the left and right sides of the prefrontal cortex are often out of balance; the left side is often overactive. What if that overactivity could be brought back into balance? Would it help alleviate depressive symptoms? Flavio Frohlich, Ph.D.
, professor of psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine, has pioneered methods for investigating this question, finding fascinating answers while helping patients relieve their depression symptoms. Now, for the first time, Frohlich and colleagues—including longtime collaborator David Rubinow, MD, former chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry—have developed and successfully tested a closed-loop system that can measure a person's individual alpha frequencies and stimulate the brain with a low-level alternating electri.