Bringing computation to brain health research
A new brain health initiative at KTH will bring together expertise from across disciplines to pave way for better diagnosis, and treatment of brain disorders. Meet the initiator, researcher Arvind Kumar, an electrical engineer whose curiosity about circuits led him to one of the most complex systems of all—the human brain.
Brain health is an urgent issue in today’s society. While scientists have made remarkable progress in understanding the brain’s structure and many of its functions, much remains a mystery.
At KTH, a new research initiative - Brain Health - aims to change that. By uncovering the key mechanisms underlying brain disorders, the initiative hopes to pave the way for better diagnosis, and treatment of conditions affecting millions worldwide.
"If we could understand brain disorders better, we could ease suffering and significantly improve quality of life for so many," says Arvind Kumar, lead researcher for the initiative.
Fragmented research
Whether it’s neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, or psychiatric conditions such as depression and schizophrenia, diagnosing and treating brain disorders remains a challenge.
The current pradigm to understand and treat brain disorders is to look for physical or chemical changes in the brain. But many psychiatric conditions leave no visible traces in the brain’s structure or chemistry and some brain disorders such epilepsy, Kumar points out, are not a constant state but something that occurs in episodes.
"Evidence is compelling that brain diseases don’t stem from a single point of failure—like a mutated gene, a few dead neurons, or a misplaced chemical. The brain is very good at compensating for such defects. Disease manifests when multiple changes happen at once at many levels – from molecules to neural networks. Indeed any brain disorders are caused by improper brain dynamics and failures in transfer of information. Yet, surprisingly, brain activity is often overlooked in diagnoses," Kumar says.
The problem, he argues, is that research has remained fragmented.
"Everyone has been focusing on their individual fields and preferred level of description of the brain. No wonder we haven’t come further - integration is the key."
Breaking silos
Kumar wants to connect the brain’s chemical and structural properties with its dynamic electrical activity. To achieve this, the Brain Health initiative at KTH will bring together expertise from across disciplines, from neuroscience and biochemistry to AI and computational modeling.
At KTH there are reseachers with many diverse, academic backgrounds – biologicsts, engeneeres, physicists and mathematicians – who are studying the brain from their own perspective.
"This initiative is about breaking silos and merging insights from different fields—because that’s what brain health demands."
But how does an electrical engineering student end up working on brain health? For Kumar, it all started with a book he stumbled upon in a library: From Neuron to Brain.
"I opened the first chapter, and it looked just like electrical engineering—circuits, signals, equations. There were so many unsolved problems, and I saw it as an invitation: ‘I can do that!’
Today, Kumar builds mathematical and computational models to understand the mechanisms behind brain diseases. His work helps identify how changes in brain structure, chemistry, and genetics contribute to brain function—and dysfunction.
Next-generation training programme
Kumar is quick to clarify that the Brain Health initiative is not just another research project. It’s a platform for uniting KTH’s expertise in the field. With a glint in his eyes, he says that he hopes that KTH will become a hub for brain health research.
"I know we can collaborate more and help each other. Our goal is to develop technology that complements existing clinical approaches with personalized computational models of the brain. We also want to create a training programme for the next generation of brain health researchers."
Read more about the Brain Health initiative
Text and photo: Anna Gullers (agullers@kth.se)