University of Minnesota Team Develops Brain Stimulation Model to Enhance Cognitive Flexibility - Video

Research team from University of Minnesota Medical School, developed a preclinical model of a human brain stimulation therapy and found this therapy works by enhancing the brain’s ability to process conflicting pieces of evidence — thus improving human cognition by making people more flexible in their decision-making. The findings are published in Science Translational Medicine

Brain stimulation therapy is a treatment where electrical signals are used to stimulate specific parts of the brain.

Lack of flexibility is a major factor in multiple mental health conditions, including depression, ADHD and addiction. Treatments to improve flexibility have traditionally been difficult to develop because of the lack of preclinical models. This new model directly pulls from work the team had previously conducted which demonstrated its effectiveness on humans, and now will help them understand why and how brain stimulation works. They intend to use those insights to discover treatments that work more reliably and help more patients.

“This work is a true translational story. We found an effect in humans, developed a preclinical model and then showed that the learnings from that model actually tell us how a human clinical intervention works,” said Alik Widge, MD, PhD, an associate professor at the U of M Medical School and psychiatrist with M Physicians. “Now, we're working to build a clinical trial around this idea of enhancing decisional flexibility. If we're right, that could be transformative for a wide range of disorders, from depression to addiction to PTSD and maybe even autism.”

Reference: Adriano E. Reimer et al.,Striatal stimulation enhances cognitive control and evidence processing in rodents and humans.Sci. Transl. Med.16,eadp1723(2024).DOI:10.1126/scitranslmed.adp1723