WIKIMEDIA, JOHN A BEAL, LSUHSCThe implantation of electrodes to stimulate brain areas malfunctioning in disease is not a new idea. More than 100,000 patients have received such deep-brain stimulation (DBS) treatments for Parkinson’s and other brain disorders, and diverse diseases, including depression and Alzheimer’s, are currently under study for their response to DBS. Last week (October 24), the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced its support of continued brain implant research, vowing $70 million over five years to improve DBS techniques and/or develop entirely new technologies.

The initiative, called Systems-Based Neurotechnology and Understanding for the Treatment of Neuropsychological Illnesses, “is a significant development for neuroscience, for bioengineering, and most importantly, for patients,” DBS pioneer Andres Lozano of the University of Toronto told The Scientist in an e-mail. (See Lozano’s feature story on DBS research and therapy, “Tuning the Brain.”)

Specifically, DARPA aims to develop better biomarkers for measuring...