The US military has just funded a new futuristic project to improve the performance of its soldiers, and which could prove useful to better understand and treat many neurological diseases. In the form of a cap, this device should monitor and stimulate the evacuation of metabolic waste from the brain during sleep.
A nightcap to clean your brain ? No, this is not a concept product launched on Kickstarter which will never see the light of day. On the contrary, it is a very serious project, since it has been funded by the US military to the tune of 2.8 million dollars (2.4 million euros) just for the first year. The study is carried out by engineers from Rice University in Texas, in collaboration with the Houston Methodist Hospital and the Baylor College of Medicine.
The project is still in its early stages. The researchers have not yet built a prototype, but already have a very specific goal. They are interested in glymphatic system, discovered in 2012, which purges the brain of waste metabolic through the liquid cerebrospinal during sleep. The cap will therefore be equipped with sensors to measure the flow of this liquid.
A system to measure and stimulate the glymphatic system
The researchers plan to measure electrical activity with a electroencephalogram (EEG) as well as blood flow with a rheoencephalogram (REG). They will also add an Orbital Sonogram (OSG), which sends out pulses ofultrasound across the eyes, as well as a transcranial Doppler, another ultrasound-based measurement technique. The data collected will be processed by machine learning algorithms. The cap can then intervene on the glymphatic system thanks to the transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) and low intensity focused ultrasound pulses (LIFUP).
The army is interested in this project to improve the performance of its soldiers in the field by allowing them to be well rested. However, according to the researchers, this headset could be used to probe all diseases of the brain in real time. However, it will take a year to obtain the first results of this study.
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