More than a billion people worldwide live with mental disorders, according to the World Health Organization, and modern brain-activity monitoring tools are aimed at delivering early help for anxiety and depression, infohub.kz reports.
Sandra Klonteig, a researcher at the Norwegian research organization SINTEF, highlighted the strong potential of neurotechnology in treating anxiety and depression. According to her, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) give scientists the ability to record changes in blood flow and electrical impulses in the brain.
Combining these technologies, researchers note, makes it possible to assess biological shifts before they manifest as clinical symptoms. As a result, doctors will be able to tailor personalized therapy, track the body's response to medications in a timely manner and adjust the treatment course if the chosen approach is not working.
Klonteig stresses that advances in neurotechnology and artificial intelligence are turning early diagnosis from science fiction into practice.
At the same time, for such approaches to be widely adopted, specialists still need to study more deeply the mechanisms underlying mental disorders. Neuroscientists continue to gather data today, combining neuroimaging methods with behavioral and psychological tests. Analysis of these indicators will form the basis for creating more precise and safer therapeutic tools.