The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working to develop technologies with less invasive features that could modulate the peripheral nervous system in order to treat different human conditions.The agency also wants to understand “the structure and function of specific neural circuits and their role in health and disease†through the Electrical Prescriptions program, DARPA said Tuesday.
“The technology DARPA plans to develop through the ElectRx program could fundamentally change the manner in which doctors diagnose, monitor and treat injury and illness,†said Doug Weber, DARPA program manager.
“It would continually assess conditions and provide stimulus patterns tailored to help maintain healthy organ function, helping patients get healthy and stay healthy using their body’s own systems,†he added.
DARPA wants the ElectRx initiative to help remedy brain and mental health disorders such as epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
The agency seeks to acquire vivo sensing and neural stimulation technologies to achieve the program’s goals and plans to issue a Broad Agency Announcement within the next few months.
