With 100 billion neurons in the brain, singling one out can be a Herculean task – much like finding a needle in the haystack. However, new technology by Utah-based Blackrock NeuroMed LLC can make that undertaking easier … and potentially help researchers find answers, or at least point to new questions to ask, in the quest to better understand a host of neurologic disorders.

“What makes us really unique is we have the capability of recording signals from individual neurons in the brain,” said Andy Gotshalk, CEO of Blackrock NeuroMed, a pioneering EEG monitoring technology company headquartered in Salt Lake City.  

Where standard EEG technology measures the energy of tens of thousands of neurons at once, Blackstock’s technology also measures and records signals from each tiny neuron, allowing clinicians and researchers unprecedented precision in identifying underlying causes of disruption in the brain’s natural circuitry.

Using a large forest with millions of trees as an analogy for the human brain, Gotshalk said traditional EEG alerts physicians and researchers if there is a fire in a large sector of the forest or if a disease has struck thousands of trees. The current standard of care picks up on those large signals, he explained.

“But if there was just one tree on fire or had a disease, traditional EEG would not pick that up … but our equipment can,” he said of being able to drill down to signals from a single neuron.

The Cervello^® EEG/LTM systems combine research and clinical applications to allow data collection on epileptic patients with surgically implantable electrodes. While the electrodes aren’t anything new, Gotshalk said the way Blackrock’s amplifiers work to pickup extremely small signals and then get those signals from the brain to the computer display monitor without interference is unique. The system incorporates three primary technologies – an electroencephalogram, a high-definition video camera, and a data-recording device that can monitor the brain's electrical activity.

And, Gotshalk continued, “It’s done with precise synchronization – these signals are very quick; they’re on a millisecond scale – making sure a clinician knows when these neurons are firing.”

Gotshalk noted there are already a significant number of epileptic patients being monitored across the country with implantable electrodes. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) estimates nearly 30 percent of patients with epilepsy are considered medically resistant and are not well controlled by diet and medication. From this pool of patients, many will be evaluated through noninvasive monitoring, but a portion will go on to have subdural or depth electrodes implanted for more precise monitoring.

With the Blackrock technology, hours and hours of brain data collected while waiting for a seizure can now be processed with the hope that the information will offer new insights into how the brain works. Gotshalk said the technology could help clinicians better see when and where seizures are starting and how they are progressing across the brain.

However, the goal for the collected images and data is not only to impact the treatment of epilepsy but also other conditions including ALS, Alzheimer’s, depression, and Parkinson’s.

“Central to our company’s mission is unraveling the mystery of what causes different neurological disorders,” Gotshalk stated. “It’s technology like ours that is going to give clinicians and researchers better data and a much better understanding of how the diseases are manifesting themselves so we can provide better solutions.”

While still in the early stages – the company was spun out from Blackrock Microsystems in 2012 – Gotshalk said there are already major installations throughout the Epilepsy Monitoring Units at Cedars-Sinai, Swedish Medical Center Seattle, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham. In addition, individual pieces of monitoring equipment are being used by a number of researchers, including some at UCLA.

Recognizing this is new technology, Gotshalk said the company is moving slowly to ensure clinicians are comfortable with the system’s clinical use, which still allows them to view traditional EEG data while simultaneously giving them the new ability to monitor individual neuron signaling. However, he reiterated, the hope is absolutely that researchers and physician-scientists will take advantage of this expanded data with an eye toward impacting other neurological conditions.

“The goal is to get a much better understanding of how the brain is functioning … which hopefully will give us better insight when the brain isn’t functioning properly,” he concluded.

RELATED LINKS:

Blackrock Microsystems: http://www.blackrockmicro.com

Blackrock NeuroMed: http://blackrockneuromed.com