The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) seeks to develop a new understanding of complex, systems-based disorders of the brain and deliver a platform technology for precise therapy in humans living with neuropsychiatric and neurologic disease, including veterans and active duty soldiers suffering from mental health issues.
Methods developed through the “Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies (SUBNETS)” program will use neural recording and stimulation to close the loop on therapeutic treatment in individuals who receive minimal benefits from currently available treatments.
The program is anticipated to lead to improved knowledge of multiple neural subnetworks of the brain that are involved in disease and illness. The effort combines novel device development, complex modeling of behaving human neural systems, clinical neurology, and animal research in order to advance the understanding and translation of safe, effective neurotechnological therapies.
“The neuropsychiatry problem is significant to the DoD and requires significant, cooperative investments across technological areas where DARPA has both particular interest and past expertise and development,” states the announcement.
For purposes of this program, DARPA is specifically interested in evaluating the underlying systems, which contribute to the following conditions as described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V): Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); Major Depression; Borderline Personality Disorder; and General Anxiety Disorder.
DARPA is additionally interested in evaluating the representation in the central nervous system for TBI, Fibromyalgia/Chronic Pain, and Substance Abuse.
Further details are available under Solicitation Number: DARPA-BAA-14-09.
