Jake Toth

YouTube video by Oxford Engineering How Can We Change Brain Activity With Sound? | Jake Toth | Spotlight: Illuminating Engineering

My recent talk on how we can change brain activity without surgery or drugs is live!

youtu.be/EpnMdwZ7lFo?...

Last week I gave my first public talk on non-invasive brain stimulation. It was an exciting (but slightly terrifying) experience. I spoke about how we can change brain activity without surgery or drugs and the incredible potential of these technologies!

Yes - but I also think we tend to discount the value of the work we do during those years. Both PhDs and postdocs are basically just jobs producing economic value! If anything PhD's are a hyper-efficient use of resources as skilled workers produce public goods for very low pay.

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

What does engineering sound like when it’s reshaping your world?

Get a sneak peek from our Spotlight speakers!

🗓️ 30 April, Old Fire Station
🎟️ Book now: https://eng.ox.ac.uk/events/spotlight-illuminating-engineering-2025/
#SpotlightIE

What brain regions are involved in causing psychotic symptoms?

Take a moment away from the existential dread about the future of science, and join me in this summary of some incredibly cool stuff that could help patients!
1/n🧵

Note of concern regarding the sources of scientific evidence used to justify the Reclassification of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation (NIBS) Devices without an intended medical purpose into Class III

EU reclassification of non-medical tES/TMS to Class III (high-risk) was based on shockingly weak evidence. Full details are here:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Precision Neurotechnologies Backed by £69m, this programme aims to unlock new methods to interface with the human brain at the cellular level, with unprecedented precision.

It’s so exciting to see all the newly funded ARIA Precision Neurotechnologies projects get announced!
A full list can be found here:
www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-...

Congratulations!

2025 Fellow Jake Toth

Pleased to share that I have been selected for the 2025 Foresight Fellowship Program!
I'm excited to network with fellow Foresight members and to discuss how non-invasive brain stimulation technologies can be used and scaled in the long term. 🧠
foresight.org/fellowship/2...

The Caltech and JPL Disaster Relief Fund

Hundreds of Caltech and Caltech/Nasa Jet Propulsion Lab scientists, professors, and students have lost their homes in the LA fires.

The Disaster Relief Fund is organized to help. Please share.
giving.caltech.edu/areas-to-sup...

Research Associate in Inclusive Neurotechnology Design at University of Sheffield Apply now for the Research Associate in Inclusive Neurotechnology Design role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

Interested in inclusive neurotechnology design?
I highly recommend applying for this postdoc position.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLJ593/r...

If you use brain (or nerve!) stimulation methods in human (or animal!) neuroscience, then maybe you need (to be on) this list...

#BrainStim

(please ask to be added)

go.bsky.app/395SGxh

No, but given the responses to this post I guess I should!

For those who don’t know, focused research organisations (FROs) strike a balance between the openness of research, the dynamism of start-ups, and the scale of industry. If you have a big idea in neurotechnology, consider applying to open an FRO in the UK!

Antidepressant class and concurrent rTMS outcomes in major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis The combination of rTMS with SSRIs, but not SNRIs, significantly reduced depression severity, increasing response and remission rates. Some analyses demonstrated high heterogeneity, which was influenced by an SSRI trial with a high effect size. Overall, these results suggest that not all antidepressant combination therapies are alike, and SSRIs should be considered when initiating rTMS.

Generally, NIBS + antidepressants can have better outcomes than just NIBS or antidepressants alone. But it isn't always the case. There's a recent review on this here:
www.thelancet.com/journals/ecl...

All great questions!
Magnetic stimulation (TMS) is typically used over a 4-6 week period for less than an hour per day but a recent protocol shows good efficacy over 5 days with many sessions per day (all in the clinic). tDCS is roughly 20 mins per day for 6 weeks at home.

Needs of individuals with tetraplegia and expectations regarding implanted neuroprosthesis

What % of people with tetraplegia would turn down an implanted device to recover hand movement?

Surprisingly (to me at least) it was 29% in this survey!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Any predictions on AI for drug discovery, material science or science in general?

I squeeze, stretch and push on brains

What will the world look in 30 years?

I’m not so sure about this prediction: “By 2055, she thinks many people will be "cognitively connected" - a hive mind of humans and technology via servers, which will help in the sharing of ideas.”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Progression of implant plan from placement map, to surgical image, to stimulation results.

Our new publication in Human Brain Mapping is a roadmap to implanting stimulation electrodes to evoke tactile sensations on the fingers of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) users. We share the plan and results for 5 study participants across a decade at 2 sites.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Human cortical pyramidal neurons are larger, with more elaborate branching, and distinct nonlinear biophysical properties compared to rat cortical pyramidal neurons.

Are they more functionally complex? Could that boost the human brain’s computational power? and is that what makes us human? (1/11)

an elderly woman in a green shirt says it 's been 84 years ... Alt: An elderly woman in a green shirt from the movie Titanic says “Its been 84 years…”

It feels like travelling back in time!

Frontiers | Opportunities and obstacles in non-invasive brain stimulation Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) is a complex and multifaceted approach to modulating brain activity and holds the potential for broad accessibility. Th...

The full paper is available here: doi.org/10.3389/fnhu....
Would love to hear your thoughts or questions!

We also discuss areas of opportunity for future work including multimodal stimulation, addressing biases and the issue of small sample sizes. I learned a lot writing this paper. I hope it provides some useful information for people interested in this area!

An illustration showing sources of variation in non-invasive brain stimulation. This includes head and brain morphology, neuron type and orientation, exogenous stimuli, endogenous activity and stimulation parameters.

One challenging area in NIBS is understanding why it works differently across the population. Key factors include:
💠Head and brain structure
💠Neuron type and orientation
💠Brain activity at the time of stimulation
💠Stimulation parameters

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) is a promising but challenging field of research. I recently joined Bluesky, so thought I would share one of my recent papers exploring electrical, magnetic, ultrasonic and light-based brain stimulation and where the field might go next ⬇️

Please share: ARIA is offering £500k seed awards for neural interface projects. Apply by 13 Feb 2025.

I've been impressed with ARIA's scientific team and overall execution so far. They deserve your best ideas!

www.aria.org.uk/scalable-neu...

Hi everyone! I'm a postdoc at the University of Oxford working with transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS)🔊🧠. I'm interested in neurotechnology, particularly non-invasive brain stimulation.

Excited to discuss all the amazing research and innovation in this space!
#NeuroSky #Neurotech

Would love to be added to this, thanks!