Top Story: University of Minnesota studies brain's electrical signals as warnings for depression, suicide

Top Story: University of Minnesota studies brain's electrical signals as warnings for depression, suicide

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School are searching for electrical signals in the brain that might indicate severe depression or suicidal impulses. The project, called Fast, Reliable Electrical Unconscious Detection—or FREUD—aims to find earlier warning signs that can determine which patients are at risk for self-harm.

Dr. Alik Widge, an associate professor at the U of M Medical School, is leading the project. “What we want to try to do is find those moments of conflict when someone has a part of them that wants to speak up and ask for help, but it’s fighting another part of them that is saying, ‘Shut up! Keep your head down,’” he says. The goal is to create a “lying-to-yourself detector” that identifies brain signals unique to people who struggle with suicidal thoughts or psychosis.  

The study is being funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with the hope of creating a mental health version of the MRI. The final product could be some sort of hat that patients wear in clinics that measures their responses to different images or statements on computer screens.

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