Saturday, October 31, 2026
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Tag: neuromodulation

14 articles

Industry News

Chinese state television says ultrasound brain stimulation improved conscious behaviour in 13 of 24 patients

China Central Television reported on 29 and 30 October 2026 that, in a study by the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Kunming Medical University, 13 of 24 patients with chronic disorders of consciousness showed clear improvement after non-invasive ultrasound stimulation. Chinese media call the device a brain-computer interface, and the reports describe only stimulation. InsideBCI found no published paper on the study and no registration for it on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Oct 31

Market Moves

CereGate raises Series C for a Parkinson's walking therapy

CereGate, a Munich company developing a therapy for freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease that runs on Boston Scientific deep brain stimulation implants, said on 14 October 2026 that an unnamed US medtech company had led its Series C. CereGate did not disclose the amount or its valuation. Its US trial began in April 2022, with main data collection due to finish in June 2027.

Oct 15

Policy & Regulation

UN Secretary-General recommends banning coercive use of neurotechnology in justice systems

In a report to the UN General Assembly dated 27 August 2026 (A/81/351), Secretary-General António Guterres recommends that member states prohibit the compulsory or coercive use of neurotechnology in the administration of justice, including brain-based deception detection, predictive applications, decoding applications that claim to read thoughts, intentions or memories, neuromodulation, and arbitrary or unlawful cognitive surveillance and monitoring. He asks states to recognise neural data as highly sensitive personal data with the highest level of legal protection and clear limits on its collection, processing, sale, storage, retention, reuse and sharing, to require free, prior, informed, explicit and revocable consent for any use of neurotechnology in justice settings, and to urge neurotechnology companies to carry out human rights due diligence. The report, requested by the General Assembly in December 2024, warns, citing outside research, that neural data gathered by consumer devices may be accessed by state authorities or introduced as evidence. Its recommendations do not bind governments.

Oct 11

Market Moves

MintNeuro raises $5 million to supply purpose-built chips to neural device makers

MintNeuro, a London semiconductor company spun out of Imperial College London, announced a $5 million round on 7 October 2026 led by Odyssey Ventures, with 33East, JSK Investments and Alumni Ventures joining and Empirical Ventures, Jumpspace Ventures and other early investors investing again. It designs modular chips for neural sensing, signal processing and stimulation that device makers can build on in place of adapted general-purpose components or years of custom chip design. Its partners include Motif Neurotech, which announced a multi-year chip supply agreement with MintNeuro on 30 April for its depression implant, and Amber Therapeutics, whose co-founder Tim Denison chairs MintNeuro. The money will fund product launches, delivery of pre-release chips to partners, a larger team and a stronger US presence. MintNeuro's last disclosed equity round was £1 million in November 2024.

Oct 8

Industry News

Arbor Neuroscience CEO Philip Sabes tells Shanghai BCI symposium that prediction is the neuromodulation bottleneck

Philip Sabes, a Neuralink co-founder (full-time 2017 to 2020) and now CEO of Arbor Neuroscience, delivered a keynote at the BCI Inno+ Salon International Symposium on Brain-Computer Interface in Shanghai on 14 September 2026. His stated thesis was that the real bottleneck in neuromodulation is prediction: because clinicians cannot reliably predict what will happen after brain stimulation, treatment outcomes are inconsistent. Sabes summarised current practice as 'poke and hope' and positioned Arbor's approach as 'predict and treat'. Arbor Neuroscience is the September 2026 rebrand of Forest Neurotech, a functional-ultrasound-imaging Focused Research Organization founded by Sumner Norman, Tyson Aflalo and Will Biederman inside Convergent Research. The symposium was hosted by the BCI Innovation and Transformation Center at Brain Intelligence World in Shanghai's Minhang District, a Shanghai state-backed partnership between Minhang District, Lingang Group, Shanghai State Investment Corp and Huashan Hospital (a Fudan University teaching hospital), positioned as China's first BCI industry cluster. Sabes made no public statement on US and China BCI competition, export controls, or the recent NSCEB and BIS enforcement actions.

Sep 19

Industry News

ANEUVO's spinal stimulator clears the FDA

The ExaStim system — a transcutaneous spinal cord stimulator for people with chronic spinal cord injury — has received FDA 510(k) clearance, making it the first device of its kind cleared for both clinical and home use in the United States.

Apr 16