The central government-managed Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) in Jharkhand capital Ranchi added a precision/personalised neuromodulation facility, claiming to be the only such facility available for psychiatric treatment in the country.

CIP director Basudeb Das, who inaugurated the facility at brain stimulation lab of CIP on Thursday, said: “This is the first of its kind precision/personalised neuromodulation facility in the country. It is a high-end neuromodulation facility and this will upscale the clinical and research services of the institute exponentially.”

“Using this system we can customise the brain stimulation treatment as per the personal requirements of each individual so that they can receive maximum treatment benefits as well as precision in the clinical research. More than 75 residents from the institute received training from the service engineer who had come from Canada to provide training,” informed in-charge of the lab Dr Nishant Goyal.Significantly, CIP located in the Kanke area of Ranchi had added the first and exclusive neuroplasticity lab in a mental health institution in the country in May which became operational in June.

“The CIP had the first and exclusive neuroplasticity lab in a mental health institution in our country earlier this year which paved the way towards searching for biological markers for various psychiatric disorders and also would provide a window to peep into the functioning of the brain,” added Das.

Though neuroplasticity labs are situated in Centre for Neuroscience at the Indian Institute of Science and at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences — both in Bangalore, but the CIP has two exclusives.

“We are the first neuroplasticity lab in the country using a real time virtual environment using high-end projections across all the walls in the experiment room. This apart, we are the only set up to use wireless assessment and interventions on the individuals wherein the individuals are free to roam around as it would not interfere with the recording or procedure,” said in-charge of the neuroplasticity lab and the Centre for Cognitive Neurosciences (CCN), Dr Nishant Goyal.

Dr Goyal also informed that the CIP lab would be used purely for clinical research, which is not the case with the Indian Institute of Science.Officials further informed that in the lab activity of the brain can be studied and modified at the same time using wireless techniques in a virtual environment.

Assessment techniques like functional ‘Near Infrared Spectroscopy’ and ‘Electroencephalography’ are being used and ‘Neuromodulation’ techniques like High Definition Transcranial Stimulation and Neurofeedback are being used as stand alone or in various combinations to understand the mechanism of functioning of brain in various neuropsychiatric conditions. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to adapt to changes in an individual’s environment by forming new neural connections over time.