The University of Minnesota is sharing research on monitoring electrical signals in the brain that could provide warnings about severe depression and suicidal impulses.
Dr. Alik Widge, a University Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science says the project is called Fast, Reliable Electrical Unconscious Detection, or FREUD. Widge says better detection of depression, psychosis, and suicide will help start treatment as early as possible.
“It’s exactly those early moments when getting someone therapy or mental health services could save their life or change the course of their illness,” Widge said. “We want to provide tools for early prevention and detection before things get worse.”
Speaking to WCCO Radio’s Jason DeRusha, Widge explains how it could work.
“The parts of your brain that are responsible for, the technical term is response inhibition but it basically comes down to that little voice inside of you that says ‘well should I, shouldn’t I’, all of those happen to be on top of your brain, right at near the crown of your head,” says Widge. “They are in perfect position. All that is exactly where, if you’ve got some electrodes sitting on top of someone’s scalp, you can see it.”
What are they looking for, exactly?
“What we’re really looking for is to understand and detect and process the idea of conflict,” Widge explains. “Of when someone’s got two urges or two desires or two thoughts that are fighting within themselves. And that’s especially important when you have someone who is thinking of hurting themselves.”
Widge says the long-term goal is to get beyond detection and use the biometric information to come up with more effective therapies for preventing suicide.
The team doing the research will use different technologies to directly detect electrical signals that occur in the brain and the body when someone encounters something with which they feel uncomfortable.
“There is something a person wants to do, such as saying they’ve been hearing voices or thinking about killing themselves, but they’re afraid to admit it’s true, either to themselves or others, so they push it out of conscious awareness,” explained Widge. “That ‘push’ creates electrical signatures you can read from the scalp.”
Dial 988 on your phone for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.