Breakthrough: Smart earpiece can rewire 'brain's software', enabling quick recovery for stroke patients

In what sounds like good news, ETH researchers Paulius Viskaitis and Dane Donegan have developed a new system, an earpiece, that can make vagus nerve stimulation easier and available much faster.

"Our earpiece emits subtle electrical impulses to activate the nerve in the outer ear, thus eliminating the need for a surgical procedure," Viskaitis, who was recently awarded an ETH Zurich Pioneer Fellowship to help him bring the technology to market, said in a statement.

An easier and more efficient way to relearn physical actions

Years ago, Donegan had proved that stimulating the vagus nerve wasn't the only factor. He demonstrated that electrical impulses are more effective if administered while patients are trying to do the tasks that were found difficult to perform since their stroke.

The timing is crucial here. It helps the "brain rewire motor neural circuits to compensate for malfunctions in regions damaged by the stroke," according to the release.

"It’s like we’re reconfiguring the brain’s software: stimulating the nerve promotes neuroplasticity, aids the formation of new synapses, and supports the relearning of physical actions," Donegan said.

A physical therapist must be on hand to manually operate the stimulator in the current implanted sensor treatment. The ETH researchers have a remedy for this also.

They have developed a movement sensor that works like a smartwatch. Stroke patients wear this sensor wherever their motor function is impaired. Thanks to special software, the sensor analyses the arm's movements in real-time and conveys the same to the earpiece when the patient moves their arm well.

This, in turn, triggers stimulation of the vagus nerve, and the brain recalls the correct sequence of movements faster, just like reinforcement learning.

Stroke patients can easily use the technology without professional supervision. Viskaitis and Donegan want to launch an ETH spin-off and move ahead with tests on healthy people, after which they will proceed with the first clinical study.