The brain-computer interface in China industry is growing rapidlyand the latest company to emerge from the country aims to access the brain without the use of invasive implants.

Gestala, newly founded in Chengdu with offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong, plans to use ultrasound technology to stimulate—and eventually read from—the brain, according to CEO and cofounder Phoenix Peng.

This is the second company to launch in recent weeks with the goal of tapping the brain using ultrasound. Earlier this month, OpenAI announced a major investment in the brain-computer interface startup Integration Labswas founded with its CEO, Sam Altman, along with other tech executives and members of Forest Neurotech, a nonprofit research organization based in California.

Best known as a type of medical test, ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of internal organs and visualize blood flow. One of the most common uses of ultrasound is to monitor the development of a fetus during pregnancy. But researchers are also interested in the potential of ultrasound to treat diseases, not just to diagnose them.

Depending on the intensity of the ultrasound, it can be used to destroy abnormal tissue such as blood clots or cancer, or modulate neural activity without the need for surgery. Focused ultrasound treatments have been approved for Parkinson’s disease, uterine fibroids, and some tumors.

Originally, Gestala wanted to develop a device that delivered focused ultrasound to the brain to treat chronic pain. Pilot studies have shown that stimulation of the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved in the emotional side of pain, can reduce the intensity of pain in people. up to a week.

Peng said Gestala’s first-generation device will be a stationary benchtop machine. Patients must go to a clinic to receive treatment. The company is already in talks with some hospitals in China that are interested in testing the technology, Peng said.

Gestala’s second generation device is a wearable helmet that will allow patients to use it at home under the guidance of a doctor. Beyond chronic pain, Gestala wants to gradually expand to other indications, including depression and other mental illnesses, as well as stroke rehabilitation, Alzheimer’s disease, and sleep disorders.

Like Altman’s Merge Labs, Gestala wants to use ultrasound to read the brain as well. Ideally, a device would detect brain states associated with chronic pain or depression, for example, and deliver therapeutic stimulation to the precise area of ​​the brain with abnormal activity. Peng says the goal is not to “enhance” people but healthier neural functions.

Most brain-computer interfaces, including Neuralink, work by capturing electrical signals produced by neurons. The ultrasound-based interface instead measures changes in blood flow in the brain.

Previously, Peng was the CEO and cofounder of Shanghai-based NeuroXess, which developed a brain implant that reads electrical signals from neurons. NeuroXess aims to allow paralyzed people to control digital devices and produce synthesized speech with their thoughts. Peng left NeuroXess last year to work at Gestala.

“The electrical brain-computer interface only records from one part of the brain, for example, the motor cortex,” Peng said. “Ultrasound, it seems, can give us the ability to access the entire brain.”

Another cofounder of Gestala is Tianqiao Chen, founder of the online gaming company Shanda Interactive Entertainment. Chen also founded the California-based nonprofit Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, which supports neuroscience research.

The company’s name comes from Gestalt psychology, a German school of thought associated with the saying, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Maximilian Riesenhuber, a professor of neuroscience and co-director of the Center for Neuroengineering at Georgetown University, says that getting information from the brain using ultrasound is more ambitious than delivering targeted ultrasound to a particular part of it. The skull weakens and distorts ultrasound signals, and so far, researchers have only been able to interpret neural activity using ultrasound by removing part of the skull to create a “window” to the brain.