In the next episode of the column "Science does not sleep", we will present you an exceptional innovation in the fight against one of the most common mental illnesses and scourge of our time - depression! Depression affects about 280 million people worldwide, and for one third of them, none of the available methods of therapy give results. But now scientists from the University of California, San Francisco have for the first time succeeded in alleviating an extremely severe form of depression with the help of a customized brain implant. The method is called deep brain stimulation. The device is calibrated to detect the characteristic neural activity that triggers a person's bouts of depression. In response, it generates electrical impulses that block depression before it starts. In the episode you will find out: The whole story behind Sarah - the first patient to undergo this experimental treatment? How does the brain implant in question work and to what extent has it been able to help Sarah overcome her problems? How long lasting are these effects and what are the next steps in device testing? Can such devices also be used for non-therapeutic purposes? The episode takes place with the indispensable support of Ontotext - one of the best Bulgarian software companies with a focus in the field of semantic technologies! https://www.ontotext.com/company/care... Sources and materials: For the first time: Brain implant to treat depression: https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/04/d.. .BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58719089 Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2... New Scientist: https://www.newscientist.com/article /... New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/he... The original scientific article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_br... DBS in Parkinson's Disease: • Amazing DBS Before & After 225-769-... DBS in epilepsy: • Epilepsy patient finds confidence wit... More interesting scientific news in Ratio Weekly EP188 – First Blood https://ratio.bg/podcast/188/, as well as our other podcast episodes : https://ratio.bg/podcast/ Script: Nikola Kerekov Video editing and animations: Klementina Razboinnikova Scientific consultants: Ivan Grechenliev, specialist in the clinic of child psychiatry "St. Nikola" Ivan Dimov, Assistant Professor in the Bioelectronics Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. If you like what we do, support us at https://ratio.bg/support/ You can find more about Ratio and our initiatives at https://ratio.bg/