New study reveals how brain stimulation improves cognition, decision-making in mental health disorders

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (12/19/2024) — University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have uncovered important insights that could improve how mental health conditions are treated with brain stimulation therapy —  a treatment where electrical signals are used to stimulate specific parts of the brain.

Published in Science Translational Medicine, the research team 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.

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.”

The research team hopes to move this work into clinical trials within the next two years.

Funding was provided by OneMind Institute, the U of M Medical Discovery Team on Addiction, MnDRIVE Brain Conditions initiative, Tourette Association of America and the National Institutes of Health [grants R01NS120851, R01MH124687].

###

About the University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu.