Focus announces EEG Dev Kit

Update 2/2/17. Focus just announced functional Near-InfraRed Spectroscopy (fNIRS) capabilities for their EEG Dev kit!

This was announced a few days ago and to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to make of it… a battery-looking EEG thing. Certainly I’m not a ‘Dev’ and so I left it to those who are to parse the details, still…  Ah, yes, further details arrived today via email I’m happy to share with you (below). I do get the feeling this will make EEG devs excited.

Update 1/19/17 The focus site now has a photo of their new dry EEG electrode.

Thanks for all your feedback and questions about the focus EEG. A common question has been what exactly is included (see below) and is it everything required (yes).

Included in EEG Dev Kit

  • foc.us EEG 24-bit 8-channel EEG with tES & Wi-Fi
  • 8 active dry electrodes for EEG, plus bias & reference electrodes
  • 2 active bio-potential electrodes for ECG, EOG, EMG or EKG
  • 2 wet tES electrodes for tDCS, tACS, tPCS or tRNS
  • 10-20 placement cap
  • Mains power adapter for recharging
  • Raw data access

Next week we will provide more details on the software and SDK for EEG processing.

Sincerely,
team focus

P.S. The first 100 66 are available at only $999 $499 – half price!

What I’m excited about is the Focus EEG headset, but a recent tweet exchange indicates we’re a good year away from release.

Caputron Now Carrying Focus GoFlow Starter Kit

Update 7/25/16 Caputron just announced their Banana Adapter for Focus Devices which facilitates use of Focus with Amrex or Caputron electrodes.

Caputron will be handling all Customer Support on GoFlow devices purchased through their site. At this time they have over 100 units in stock. If you’re not familiar with Caputron please check out my interview with founder Robin Azzam. Caputron has extended their discount to DIYtDCS readers for all products on their site, including the GoFlow. Use voucher code ‘diytdcs’ (without the quotation marks) for a generous discount.

New Go Flow Pro package.

New Go Flow Pro package.

 

Spotlight on Halo’s Engineering: An Interview With Brett Wingeier, CTO | Medium

tdcshaloprimers

A big challenge for us has been: how do you get through the hair? Well, quite simply, with something that looks like a comb or brush. We engineered the primers to reflect a comb-like design — with rows of soft elastic foam tips called nibs. We spent the last two years coming up with the best shape, material, stiffness, angle, and geometry for these nibs, and then figuring out how to make them.

Spotlight on Halo’s Engineering: An Interview With Brett Wingeier, CTO

Olympic Athletes Are Electrifying Their Brains, and You Can Too | IEEE SPECTRUM

Eliza Strickland covered the HaloNeuro tDCS device. This clip shares my hopes about the Halo… that sports serves as a gateway until they can get established. IMO we need a device manufacturer with deep pockets who can satisfy the research and regulation requirements to make tDCS (or any other form of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation – NIBS, that is effective) mainstream.

While the authorities dither, Halo will do its best to slip into the mainstream. And athletes are just the first customers targeted by this ambitious company. In South Carolina, a neurologist is currently testing the Halo with stroke patients to see if stimulating the motor cortex speeds up rehab. Chao envisions a whole range of Halo products offering consumers different kinds of mental boosts. “What if you want to learn Chinese and we stimulate the language center?” he says. “What if we stimulate the memory center and pair that with brain-training games?”

Olympic Athletes Are Electrifying Their Brains, and You Can Too

tdcsHaloHeadphone

LucidCatcher – tACS Lucid Dreaming Device

Luciding is now taking pre-orders for the LucidCatcher. (Lots more on this site about lucid dreaming). Like much of the tDCS research, studies report conflicting results using tACS to induce lucid dreaming. Note that Foc.us has had a 40 Hz tACS mode built into their V2 device and also has a lucid dreaming kit. It’s been out long enough now that I would think that widespread success with using it to induce lucid dreams would have been widely reported. The LucidCatcher does come in a form factor optimized for sleeping. I’m curious to know more about the unusual electrode setup.

tdcsLucidCatcher

How does it work?

We typically see the dreams during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phase. The device detects your REM and pushes mild electric impulses to the prefrontal cortex at a frequency of 40 Hz. It brings the logical brain back into service and makes you realize that you must be in a dream.

You’ll recognize the dream by millions of different signs that contradicts the reality because your consciousness evokes.

See also: Today in crazy cool: You can use this headband to control your dreams

Not Quite A Take Apart – Nathan Looks At The Thync Device

I was happy to lend Nathan my Thync. I knew he’d get to the bottom of what exactly was going on. Especially in the context of exploring TES, pulsed wave forms and some of the older technologies I’d recently been made aware of in my interview with Anna Wexler, I knew the Thync device would represent the state of the art. Jamie Tyler had arranged for me to have one, most likely in my capacity as a blogger and reporter of all things related to neurostimulation. I myself did not experience any significant effects using the Thync though I did find myself using it frequently – mostly the Calm vibe. Was there some effect lying just below consciousness that my body was reacting to? Certainly nothing like the experience Manoush Zomorodi had trying Thync for her podcast episode Forget Edibles: Getting High on Wearables (really a must hear).

Check out Nathan’s full analysis of the Thync device. The Science and Technology Behind Thync’s Brain(?) Stimulator

tdcsNathanThyncRecording

Focus Posts ‘Before You Get Started’ Page For DIYers

tdcs20160512-2Focustry-tdcs-largeFocus has posted a new page on their site which directs new users to show caution in their use of DIY tDCS. Focus goes so far as to caution people under the age of 18 not to try it.

If you are under 18 you should stop here. tDCS is not suitable for children and should not be used. This is because your brain is still developing and you don’t need to mess with its neuroplasticity.

The page goes on to list the known risks and a few benefits. Interestingly, it does not mention depression. I would have to imagine due to the possibility of crossing that nebulous regulatory line around ‘medical devices’.

Focus is, as I understand it, in the midst of fulfilling orders for their GoFlow device. You can read a full review of the GoFlow on SpeakWisdom, the (primarily) tDCS-related site authored by Dr. Brent Williams. Go Flow Pro, Nice Brain Stimulation Kit! 

New Go Flow Pro package.

New Go Flow Pro package.

 

Self-Administered Domiciliary tDCS Treatment for Tinnitus | Sooma Medical

Unfortunately the study found little to no benefit (no more than sham) using tDCS with two different montages to treat tinnitus. What is very interesting however, is that the study allowed participants to administer tDCS at home.

A Sooma tDCSTM device (Sooma Oy, Helsinki, Finland) was used in the study. The device is designed and approved for patient use with pre-programmed treatment parameters and hardware-level safety limits. Patients were given a package consisting of the stimulator unit and stimulation electrodes (consisting leads and pads) along with three pairs of sponge pouches for the electrode pads, a head cap with openings for the electrodes (Fig 1), a chinstrap and 0.9% saline solution.

tdcsElectrodePouchCap

In Europe, Sooma depression solution was approved for depression treatment in 2014.

tdcsSoomaMedical2

Download the Sooma brochure (pdf)

tdcsSoomaMedical

 

tDCS For The Masses – Foc.us ‘Go Flow’

Update 2/29/16 Some details of operation I borrowed from the Foc.us rep on the tDCS subReddit.

Yes, you can do any combination of time and current between the minimum and maximum limits.

The current level can be set from 0.5mA to 2mA, and is indicated with ORANGE lights. Pushing up or down the rocker will change the value in 0.25mA steps. e.g. 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2mA.

Once the current is set the lights change to GREEN. This is to set the time and pushing the rocker up or down will change in increments of 5 mins e..g. 5, 10, etc.. to a maximum of 35 mins.

Once you press to confirm the time the session will start. There is a slow ramp-up of current at session start for comfort. The gauge will now change from ORANGE to GREEN every 5 seconds.

During an active session the lights will show you the actual current value or approximate time remaining. Using the same Orange for current and green for duration scales.

If you find the current level too low or too high, you can change it during an active session. Simply press the rocker up or down – but please note the current will be ramped for comfort, so wait for each change to take effect. The lights will instantly change to orange to show you your changed level.

Changing current during active sessions is in 0.125mA steps for fine grained control and accuracy. You can see these hard steps by half lit lights. The current level shown on the ORANGE display is the actual, accurate current.

You can click the rocker during an active session to stop and the current will ramp down and off.

“Does it taper down the current over time, or will it be at a constant current over time?” no, this device will not give you incorrect current, neither too low, nor too high. It will be accurate from start to stop. It will not fail just because you have used the wrong amount of salt or your own choice of electrodes or any of the other things that trip up other devices. If for any reason the device detects it cannot maintain the target current, the LEDs will flash green/orange and the session will be stopped.

At focus we believe that the first job of a current stimulator is to produce an accurate safe current. It is staggering that this is considered optional by other manufacturers.

I think you’ll find its a really simple device to use and operate.
If it flashes orange and green – that means the headset is not connected. If it flashes just orange, that means it cannot reach even 0.5mA. This means the resistance somewhere is too high, usually the pads. Please try with fresh pads and problem should be gone.

Update 1/22/16: Part ll of Brent Williams GoFlow review focuses on choosing electrodes.
Update 1/21/16:  Brent Williams has just published a review of the GoFlow with how-to details The Brain Hacking Revolution Continues: Introducing the foc.us Go Flow – Part 1

Not shipping until March but now taking pre-orders, Now shipping. Foc.us ‘Go Flow’ tDCS device comes in at under $30 including cables and electrodes (hydrogel only for now). But you can purchase the device itself (and use your own electrodes) for less than $15.

Read the ‘Go Flow’ story here: The Story of Focus Go Flow or order one for yourself here: FOCUS Go Flow tDCS Brain Stimulator

20160105focusGoFlow

Nathan Looks At The Braindriver

Nathan, who is our resident expert (and moderator) over at the tDCS Subreddit (you might recall his review of the Focus v2 device) just took a good look at The Braindriver. You can find the full review here.

Thync Announces Sleep Vibe

This is could be a game changer. Announced today on the Thync mailing list. New vibe available for download.

Today, after a full year of clinical sleep studies, we are thrilled to announce a sneak peek of our latest research.20160223thyncSleepAnnounced

After 1 week of using our new Good Night Vibe, our participants reported:

  • Improved sleep quality similar to 4 weeks of meditation or 8 weeks of melatonin
  • Reduced mid-night awakenings
  • Improved morning mood & alertness
  • Reduced anxiety & stress

…And the cherry on top?

The same Good Night Vibe that we used in our clinical testing is now available in the Thync app for you to use!

So go ahead – run your own sleep study: Try out the Good Night Vibe for a week, and let us know what you think!

 

Low Field Magnetic Stimulation

All roads LFMS lead to the Harvard Low Field Magnetic Stimulation Lab. But please follow along with what led me here in the story below.

Harvard's Low Field Magnetic Stimulation Lab

Harvard’s Low Field Magnetic Stimulation Lab

I came across Low Field Magnetic Stimulation, or LFMS, in a recent panel talk from SXSW: Superbugs, Magnets & More: Medicine’s Comeback Kids – SXSW Interactive 2015. The conversation is particularly interesting considering panelist Dr. Bennett Shapiro’s background. At Merck he led research that developed over 25 drugs and vaccines. (The panel touches on magnets, phage therapy and fecal transplants, for example.)

Dr. Shapiro’s company (he is the co-founder and non-executive director), Pure Tech Health created Tal Medical, to develop an LFMS treatment/device.
This is most likely the nexus for looking into LFMS in the first place:

Anecdotal reports have suggested mood improvement in patients with bipolar disorder immediately after they underwent an echo-planar magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (EP-MRSI)… Low-Field Magnetic Stimulation in Bipolar Depression Using an MRI-Based Stimulator  (Found on the Tal Medical publications page.)

The panel discusses TMS, which has recently been approved by the FDA for treatment of depression. But Dr. Shapiro goes on to discuss LFMS, which (to my readers anyway) is especially interesting because it uses so little power to achieve its effects. (As opposed to TMS which is too complicated and powerful to ever become part of the DIY community. Never say never!)

In 2013, Tal received initial proof-of-concept data from a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial in patients with major depressive and bipolar disorders conducted by McLean Hospital, a leading psychiatric research hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School. In the study, a single 20-minute treatment demonstrated rapid onset of action, substantial effect size, and a strong safety profile. Given this unique, rapid effect of LFMS treatment, the National Institute of Mental Health has selected LFMS for a multi-site clinical trial. The trial is examining the efficacy and durability of the treatment over an extended period of time in patients with major depressive disorder.

Researching possible patents led to Michael Rohan, Ph.D. and the Harvard Low Field Magnetic Stimulation Lab. I assume there is a partnership between the Harvard Lab, McLean Hospital and Tal Medical, though I could not find any formal announcement. Click through the lab link to do a deeper dive into ongoing research they are presently involved with, including clinical trials.