How neurotechnology helps against depression and ADHD

At the Charité, a team led by Surjo R. Soekadar is developing methods that network the brains of patients and computers.

Christian Schwager

Surjo R. Soekadar shows a model head with a cap from which sensors with cables hang.Benjamin Pritzkuleit

The patient smiles into the conference room from a large monitor as she formulates a sentence that sounds like salvation: “I’m alive again,” says the woman, who is around mid-50s. This Thursday she describes her story of suffering via video. “I didn’t live for a year.” She suffered from severe depression, had to be treated in a day clinic at times, took different medications in different combinations, but nothing helped.