Epilepsy treatment devices maker NeuroPace hopes to expand its clinical applications by supporting a research initiative to evaluate neurostimulation implants in treatment of memory deficits.
NeuroPace joined forces with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to evaluate the neurostimulation devices for helping to restore memory. The study will include epilepsy patients implanted with NeuroPace’s RNS System at 7 "Comprehensive Epilepsy Centers" as well as patients implanted at UCLA.
The RNS System, which won FDA approval in November, is the world’s 1st and only commercially available implantable device that monitors and interprets brain signals to provide stimulation only when needed, with follow-up monitoring to assess the brain’s response. Other similar devices on the market provide constant or intermittent stimulation that is not responsive to at-time brain activity.
The device was approved to help prevent seizures in patients with epilepsy, but NeuroPace hopes the new study may lead to greater clinical utility down the road.
"Through the DARPA [Restoring Active Memory] research, NeuroPace and other collaborators will gain fundamental knowledge regarding the restoration of memory," according to a NeuroPace press release. "The company believes this research may expand the clinical applications of the RNS System beyond the treatment of epilepsy, as well as provide the understanding necessary to inform the development of future devices that expand the capabilities of responsive neurostimulation."