This Chinese startup wants to build a new interface between the brain and the computer, without the need for any implant

Brain-computer interface in China Industry is It grows quicklyThe latest company to emerge from the country aims to reach the brain without the use of an invader He plants.

Gestala, which was newly founded in Chengdu with offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong, plans to use ultrasound technology to stimulate and eventually read from the brain, according to CEO and co-founder Phoenix Peng.

It is the second company to launch in recent weeks aiming to reach the brain using ultrasound. Earlier this month, OpenAI Announced a major investment in brain-computer interface startup Integration of laboratorieswhich was co-founded by its CEO, Sam Altman, along with other technology executives and members of Forest Neurotech, a California-based non-profit research organization.

Ultrasound, commonly known as a type of medical test, uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of internal organs and visualize blood flow. One of the most common uses of ultrasound is to monitor fetal development during pregnancy. But researchers were also interested in the ability of ultrasound to treat diseases, not just diagnose them.

Depending on the intensity of the ultrasound, it can be used to destroy abnormal tissue such as blood clots or cancer, or modify nerve activity without the need for surgery. Focused ultrasound treatments are already approved for Parkinson’s disease, uterine fibroids, and some tumors.

First, Gestala wants to build a device that delivers focused ultrasound waves to the brain to treat chronic pain. Experimental studies have shown that stimulating the anterior cingulate cortex, an area of ​​the brain involved in the emotional component of pain, can reduce pain intensity in people for a period of time. Up to a week.

Peng says the first-generation Gestala will be a fixed, table-top machine. Patients will need to come to the clinic to receive treatment. Ping says the company is in discussions with some hospitals in China interested in testing the technology.

Gestala’s second-generation device will be a wearable helmet that will allow patients to use it at home under the supervision of a doctor. Beyond chronic pain, Gestala wants to gradually expand to other indications, including depression and other mental illnesses, as well as stroke rehabilitation, Alzheimer’s disease, and sleep disorders.

Like Altman’s Merge Labs, Gestala eventually wants to use ultrasound to read the brain as well. Ideally, the device would detect brain conditions associated with chronic pain or depression, for example, and deliver therapeutic stimulation to the specific area of ​​the brain with abnormal activity. The goal, Ping says, is not to “enhance” humans, but rather to have healthier neurological functions.

Most brain-computer interfaces, including Neuralink, work by picking up electrical signals generated by neurons. Instead, the ultrasound-based interface will measure changes in blood flow in the brain.

Previously, Peng was CEO and co-founder of Shanghai-based NeuroXess, which is developing a brain implant that reads electrical signals from neurons. NeuroXess aims to allow paralyzed individuals to control digital devices and produce synthesized speech using their thoughts. Ping left NeuroXess last year to work on Gestala.

“The electrical brain-computer interface only records from part of the brain, for example, the motor cortex,” Ping says. “It appears that ultrasound could provide us with the ability to access the entire brain.”

Another co-founder of Gestala is Tianqiao Chen, founder of online gaming company Shanda Interactive Entertainment. Chen also established the California-based nonprofit Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, which supports neuroscience research.

The company’s name comes from Gestalt psychology, a German school of thought associated with the adage “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Extracting information from the brain using ultrasound is much more ambitious than delivering targeted ultrasound to a specific part of it, says Maximilian Riesenhuber, a professor of neuroscience and co-director of Georgetown University’s Center for Neural Engineering. The skull weakens and distorts ultrasound signals, and until now researchers have only been able to interpret neural activity using ultrasound by removing part of the skull to create a nerve cell. A “window” into the brain.