The Wonders of our Mind
Neuroscience
Receiving a Transmission from the Brain
elminda is developing a tool that measures our brain’s electrical fields and signals during brain activity, in order to enable brain-disorder diagnosis and treatment in real time
One of the most important discoveries in neuroscience – perhaps the final frontier for medical science specifically and for science in general – is the degree to which the brain works as a synchronized, organized system rather than as isolated regions. Another no less important discovery is that the brain is largely flexible and plastic, a fact that gives much hope in regard to its healing abilities. And yet, compared to most fields of modern medicine, such as cardiology, orthopedics and gynecology, in which diagnosis, treatment and follow-up all rely on precise measuring equipment (ultrasound, CT, etc.), the fields of medicine dealing with the brain – such as psychiatry and neurology – are forced to operate under vague, uncertain conditions in terms of the quality of diagnosis and the efficacy of care.
What is it: The goal of the research conducted by Professor Amir Geva over the last thirty years, and by the elminda Corporation, over the last six years, was to bring modern medicine to the brain by developing an imaging and treatment tool that would enable measuring and tracking of the network activities of high neural processes such as memory and identification, clear presentation of the information to the attending physician and, when necessary, repairing and improvement of neural network processes using external or internal stimulus adjusted to measurement. This may improve the lives of one third of the world’s population who suffer from various brain-related illnesses.
It has been known for some time that the brain is composed of complex networks of neurons that work together in time and space to perform complex tasks, such as processing and identifying sensory input, long- and short-term memory storage, attention, and abstract thinking, but it is very difficult to measure this activity.
How does it work: The company’s technology is based on measuring the electrical fields that are created through the brain’s neural electrical activity on the scalp and around the head during the performance of various cognitive tasks, and then reevaluating the relevant active neural network in terms of time and location in the brain, using advanced methods of signal processing and pattern recognition taken from engineering and computer science research.
The brain behind it: Professor Geva, together with Goded Shahaf and Ronen Gadot, set up ElMinda in 2006, with the purpose of measuring network activities of the functional and dysfunctional human brain during performance of various cognitive tasks, to enable diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders while tracking changes in the network activity accordingly.
Status: The company is currently involved in various stages of the complex and expensive process of developing drugs with leading teams from the largest pharmaceutical corporations in the world. The goal of this process is to measure and understand the effects of the drugs on the human brain’s network activities, and thus to develop new and effective drugs whose effects on the human brain are known and measured and which could be used to treat disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, schizophrenia, pain, depression and more. The company is concurrently working to develop a system for the diagnosis and the post-treatment clinical follow-up of various brain disorders and illnesses, including ADHD, concussions, pain, rehabilitation after stroke, and more: this will enable correct decisions to be made based on direct measurement of the activity in the organ being treated – the brain.