Entry Date:
May 14, 2007

OpenStim: The Open, Non-Invasive Brain Stimulator


Distributed collaboration across the Internet may enable new kinds of innovation to take place. We are designing, as a community, a brain stimulation device that will be low-cost, safe, and versatile. We are also developing software that enables professionals and individuals to share protocols and insights that emerge from use of such technology.

Neural stimulation hardware has traditionally been either electrical or magnetic in nature. Our lab has recently developed molecular methods for making neurons able to be activated or silenced by blue and yellow light respectively. We are engineering optical systems for targetedly stimulating neurons precisely, even in dense tissue in the living brain. Our goal is to find ways to cure persistent psychiatric.