Statistics say 29% of Brits are now obese (PA Archive)

A brain implant that detects electrical activity related to food and issues a small electric shock has been identified as a potential cure for the obesity epidemic in the UK.

According to the latest available statistics, 29% of Brits are classed as obese and 711,000 hospital admissions over the last year had obesity as a contributing factor.

But the invention of a responsive neurostimulation system (RNS) chip may be able to alter those numbers.

The RNS chip has been tested on mice and is now set for its first trial on human patients – all of whom are morbidly obese.


It was originally created by a company called NeuroPace to treat people with epilepsy but has been adapted to work with binge-eating disorders in mice.



Once implanted into the brain the chip picks up on enhanced delta waves in a region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. This increase signals anticipation of a reward which can become linked with food and therefore contribute to obesity. By administering a shock, the chip can step in and neutralize these cravings.

The chip picks up heightened delta waves in a part of the brain (Alamy)

Scientists at Stanford University are now setting up the human clinical trial which will take place over the course of five years.

The six participants will have the chip implanted in their brains for 18 months at a time. The RNS chip will monitor their brain activity for the first six months to identify the patterns that precede a binge on food. Then, when it’s turned on, it will hopefully be able to help.

The team behind the study have stressed that this is not a solution for people just trying to lose a bit of weight. It is intended as a full medical procedure to save morbidly obese patients.

To be eligible, the participants had to have had a body mass index (BMI) of over 45 and not lost weight through a gastric band or cognitive behavioral therapy.

‘These are patients who are essentially dying of their obesity,’ Stanford’s Dr Casey Halpern told Elemental.

High fat food triggers a rewarding feeling in our brains (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Martha Morrell, MD, PhD, and chief medical officer at NeuroPace, added: ‘What our device can do… is define normal patterns and then define deviation from normal.

‘It’s not like you’re chasing the symptoms, it is that you are preventing the symptoms. And that is a very attractive approach to not only impulse control disorders, but also to any episodic neurological condition.’

The team admit that part of the challenge will be separating the brain’s reward response triggered by fatty foods from those triggered by other things.

There is also concern that the stimulation could cause feelings of depression or anhedonia – a loss of interest in things and a general inability to experience pleasure.