Khalil Ramadi

For decades, scientists have tried to use brain modulation to treat neurological disorders.

Techniques usually involved sticking wires onto our head and helmets that immobilized our head and zapping our brain with magnetic or electrical pulses.

Given what we now know about the millions of circuits that our brain has, this was much like trying to fix a pothole by resurfacing the entire road.

Brain modulation can actually come in different forms.

The brain connects with all organs in our bodies through neurons, much like an octopus's tentacles.

This means that diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disorders can all be induced, affected, and exacerbated by the brain and the nervous system.

This also means that brain modulation can be achieved through different parts of the body by zapping organs and limbs with electrodes that have usually been implanted with drills and scalpels.

Today, however, brain modulation doesn't have to be so invasive.

Some of my colleagues at MIT have discovered that a potential therapy for Alzheimer's could be watching light of a certain wavelength flash at a particular frequency.

This is an example of something I like to call a bio-nudge, simple techniques that target specific circuits in our bodies to achieve a certain outcome, like using light to slow degeneration in Alzheimer's.

BioNudges don't need to be shocking or jarring.

They just need to be designed to activate or silence a specific brain circuit.

Combining BioNudges in a certain order can allow us to use them for a more targeted purpose.

My team and I at MIT develop micro devices, similar in shape and size to a pill.

They can be swallowed like we do pills and contain electronics to deliver little bursts of electrical or chemical stimuli, BioNudges, to our gut.

Our gut is the largest interface of our body with the outside world.

It has an incredible combination of tissues all working together.

It houses enteroendocrine cells that sense what we eat and induce the release of hormones that can regulate hunger and metabolism.

It houses immune cells that sense the microbiome while preventing bacteria from entering our body.

And neurons.