IISc and Pratiksha Trust launch moonshot project on brain co-processors

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on March 4 launched a moonshot project to develop brain co-processors that combine neuromorphic hardware and AI algorithms to enhance or restore brain function.

The project is funded by the Pratiksha Trust, founded by Senapathy ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan and Sudha Gopalakrishnan.

“India is emerging as a global leader in neuroscience by uniting foundational research with clinical applications through collaborative, international partnerships. Supported significantly by the Pratiksha Trust, the Brain Co-Processors Moonshot Project accelerates the development of innovative medical technologies. Ultimately, these innovations aim to provide world-class transformative neurological treatments to the global population,” said Mr. Gopalakrishnan.

From a pilot

The moonshot project is a multidisciplinary endeavour that evolved from a pilot project seeded by IISc’s Brain, Computation and Data Science initiative — a cross-departmental programme involving more than 20 faculty members — which is also supported by the Pratiksha Trust.

The primary goal of the moonshot project is to develop both implantable and non-invasive brain co-processors that can decode brain activity from neural recordings, process it with an AI algorithm, and re-encode signals back into the brain via neural stimulation or neurofeedback.

Such co-processors will be deployed towards cognitive rehabilitation of stroke survivors, to restore critical functions such as goal-directed reach and grasp abilities.

Emerging tech

Brain co-processors are an emerging technology aimed at enhancing the human brain’s natural abilities in ways relevant to real-life situations. Achieving this requires a deep understanding of how the brain solves problems. The project aims to build an AI-powered, closed-loop device that connects to different parts of the brain in order to help restore smooth, coordinated movement.

“Crucially, the project seeks to create capacity and impact in India by indigenising the development of implants, hardware, and AI stacks that can work with clinical infrastructure in low-resource settings, by building India-specific databases of stereo EEG and ECoG recordings, and by creating digital public good via open-source AI, datasets, and visualisation tools,” IISc said.

In the first phase, the project team seeks to develop, validate, and refine a non-invasive neural co-processor that can provide sensorimotor feedback for goal-directed reaching in stroke survivors, while also doing the groundwork, in parallel, for an invasive co-processor implant.

In the second phase, the goal is to develop an embedded, minimally invasive co-processor to restore sensorimotor coordination and goal-directed reaching in individuals with chronic, multi-domain deficits following middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke.

The IISc team will work with medical professionals and researchers across the country to clinically validate and deploy these co-processors in line with national and international standards and guidelines. They will incorporate feedback from neurologists, therapists, patients, and caregivers throughout the development process, and will also work closely with collaborators at research institutions in India and worldwide.

After a stroke

“By combining advanced neural recording, AI-driven inference, closed-loop stimulation, and personalised rehabilitation protocols, this project will lay the foundation for a first-of-its-kind brain co-processor that restores complex sensorimotor function after stroke,” IISc added.

“The moonshot project on brain co-processors brings together IISc researchers in diverse areas, including neuroscience, electrical engineering, bioelectronics, and neuromorphic computing, to work on a critical medical challenge: stroke rehabilitation,” said Prof G. Rangarajan, director of IISc.