Brain Hacking: Personalized Therapy is HERE!

Hi, I'm Amy Shapiro. We're here today at Calculist and CEK's Mind the Tech Berlin 2025. We're joined by Jonathan Reer, senior neurologist at Bayson Hospital. Jonathan, thank you so much for joining us today. >> Thanks for having me. Nice to meet you. >> It's a pleasure to have you. Um, to start off with, Jonathan, uh, could you introduce yourself, tell us your your full title, what it is you do at Balencin. >> So, my name is Dr. Jonathan Reiner. I'm

a neurologist. I'm a movement disorder specialist and I run the uh deep brain stimulation and neurom modulation service at Binsson Hospital. >> Mhm. >> Um and I can talk about neurom modulation if you'd like to hear. >> Yes, I I do want to hear more about uh what exactly is neurom modulation and why is it considered one of the most uh innovative technologies uh today. Okay.

So, u neurom modulation is um the ability to influence and change the brain's electrical activity through precise stimulation using either electrical, light-based or magnetic kind of inputs. It's a wellestablished therapy uh that's been around for a while now for um neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease um through basically implantation of deep brain stimulation kind of uh technologies um that through electrical stimulation we're able to assist and kind of alleviate symptoms that people suffer from in these neurological disorders. And um the amazing thing about neurom modulation is not only the ability to kind of change through electrical stimulation kind of the the brain's activity but um recently we're shifting

into kind of an era whereby um we're able also to record the electrical activity from within the brain. So for the first time ever um we're able actually to record simultaneously while we provide the the therapy for these patients the uh the the the deep kind of brain talk um in the brain in order to kind of gather information about how the brain works and gain some insight into kind of each and every individual's kind of symptoms and and and brain's activity. So, we're shifting kind of from an era of a one-sizefits-all therapy >> to a truly kind of personalized adaptive brain therapy. >> Absolutely fascinating. Um, obviously

we're in the midst of an AI revolution. How does, if at all, AI play into this uh into neurom modulation? Okay. So, um what's happening now basically because um AI is basically allowing us to to gather this uh a vast amount of data uh and analyze this vast amount of data from people who are walking around with um these kind of um technologies uh

which record their brain activities while they're in a real life setup rather than in an experimental setup. While they walk, breathe, talk, laugh, cry. um feel and um whereas previously it was almost impossible to analyze this vast amount of data just because of resource kind of uh um capabilities, now we're able through AI to uh analyze vast amounts of data uh and through basically advanced kind of uh learning models to find kind of hidden patterns within the brain and learn about kind of changes that may kind of uh give us information about uh once again brain health, brain activity maybe to allow for predictions of brain disease in people who are healthy and to basically gain insight into how the brain talks. >> Absolutely incredible. Quite a good No,

it's an incredible technology, but obviously I I have to ask if there are any or what kind of risks or ethical considerations there are for you. >> Of course, that's that's an important question. I mean with with any kind of um technology that allows us to gain insight into um the the the the deepest most kind of um raw data from the human brain. We obviously need to keep some sense of modesty and um and it's important to kind of protect um neuro privacy what's called the ability of um each of our patients or each individual to maintain their their autonomy, their agency. obviously not to develop technologies that are able to read a brain without full cooperation and transparency and consent from our patients. Um but at the same time also we're able to now gather kind of anonymized data um from various individuals all around the world and

collect them into global databases that will eventually allow us to learn about the human brain in general and not in in an individual manner. um to allow for basically better therapies and hopefully understanding of the human brain. And the last thing to to say in that respect is that >> when we talk about kind of neurom modulation and about our ability to kind of read the brain's activity, we obviously need to think about kind of where's the limit. I mean for now we're

using it to treat neurodeenerative disorders, diseases, but maybe in the future we'll be able to enhance human capabilities and then we need to ask ourselves what are the limits here? How do we keep kind of, you know, equality, social equality, access to whatever health uh systems we're developing and at the same time kind of um make sure that we we we we act from a standpoint that looks into brain health rather than, >> you know, anything malicious or or or or that may cause um any kind of um commercial uh advantage of some sort. >> Right. Uh you kind of touched on it just now, but uh finally, I want to ask you, Dr. Jonathan, what what the future looks like for neurom modulation? Where is this all going? >> So, in the near future, what's happening

now is because um we're able to read the electrical activity from within the brain, we're developing now um stimulators that um are adaptive that respond to the changes in the human brain that gain insight into kind of symptoms. For instance, in Parkinson's disease, if a patient we now know the electrical signature within the brain of uh of tremor or or rigidity or slowness of movement and we developed kind of systems that allow us to um in a closed loop fashion basically change the stimulation in accordance to the symptoms as they develop. And now as we'll gain more and more insight into the brain, we'll be able to develop further kind of technologies to respond to changes with within the brain in real time. And secondly, the the fact that

we're able now to look into signatures of uh of of human traits, emotions, cognition, uh and um and categorize them into various categories. Um we're able now to think about kind of um prediction models for brain diseases and brain health in the future to allow us to be kind of healthier and and and and better as human beings. >> Well, it it's truly remarkable

technology. I'm can't wait to see what comes next from you and your team at Bayson Hospital. Dr. Jonathan, thank you so much for joining us today. >> A pleasure. Thank you.