SUMMARY:
UCLA researchers in the Department of Physics and Neurology have developed a virtual reality and AI-based method to diagnose and treat variety of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
BACKGROUND:
The majority of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders are treated with medications, psychotherapy, or if necessary, surgery. Because of the innate variability between human bodies, many of these treatments fail to help and show little to no positive effects. In the United States alone, over 10 million people suffer from epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, or other neurological disorders that impair general neurological function. While there are available pharmaceutical treatments for these diseases, their associated side effects can often be damaging, and their effectiveness is limited. There is a need to develop new treatments to help combat these disorders that is effective regardless of an individual’s biochemistry.
A wide array of new drugs have been developed in the effort to combat neurodegenerative diseases. However, many of these drugs are only successful in animal models and do not show similar efficacy in human trials. According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, around 99.6% of Alzheimer's drugs fail in human trials after successful animal trials. There is a pressing need for a streamlined method to test drugs that previously failed in animal trials for efficacy in humans via innovative pre-clinical trials.
INNOVATION:
Renowned UCLA professor Mayank Mehta has developed a method that uses virtual reality (VR) to not only diagnose and treat neurological disorders, but also help with development of new, more effective pharmaceutical treatments. As a treatment, these VR-based methods are completely noninvasive and cheaper than most conventional remedies. Furthermore, this new method can be tailored to the patient according to the severity of their disorder. It can also improve the development of new pharmaceutical treatments by accurately representing human neurological activity. The invention provides new opportunities for patients living with neurological disorders as it enables novel, safer, and more effective treatments. The inventor also hypothesizes that this platform may be used to effectively test Alzheimer's drugs that have been previously shelved in pre-clinical trials. The proposed method can thus leverage advances in VR and AI to quickly screen drugs for efficacy in human trials.
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
- Streamlined pharmaceutical developing and testing
- Epilepsy Treatments
- Alzheimer’s treatment
- Diagnosis and treatment of Memory Disorders
- Methods to Improve Memory
ADVANTAGES:
- Minimal Side Effects
- Non-Invasive
- Customizable Treatments
- Adaptable to Various Disorders
- Monitor patients real time
- Safe practice environments
RELATED MATERIALS:
DEVELOPMENT-TO-DATE:
Method has already been developed, implemented and tested.
PRESS RELEASES:
Mysterious brain activity in mice watching a movie could help tackle Alzheimer's, improve AI
TED Talk:
Space, Time & Imagination: How Virtual Reality Changes the Brain | Mayank Mehta | TEDxUCLA