Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “The key to healthy living is in neurotechnology…”

Founding Rector of Üsküdar Üniversitesi, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, was a live broadcast guest on HABERTÜRK's program ‘Good Life with Ayşegül Çoruhlu’. Making evaluations on “The Importance and Impact of Neurotechnological Treatment Methods on Brain Health,” Tarhan provided information about TMU therapy. Stating that the future of neuropsychiatry and the key to healthy living lie in neurotechnology, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said that a strong person must have well-trained the frontal region of their brain. Underlining that one type of harm to a patient is leaving them untreated, Tarhan emphasized that more time should be allocated to preventive medicine.

“The future of neuropsychiatry is in neurotechnology”

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, mentioning that the brain's operating system works with electrical and chemical firing; “The future of neuropsychiatry is already in neurotechnology. The key to healthy living is here. Neurolink, a brain-computer interface, is a software related to transferring information from the brain to a computer. Exercises are being done to move arms and legs with thought power using some wearable technologies. Our brain's operating system works with electrical and chemical firing. It works with electrical firing. If electrical firing continues, chemical firing occurs simultaneously. Writings on sand become permanent like writings on stone, similar to chemical firing. When writing information to the human brain, one learns with their mind, but if they don't include their emotions, and impulses from the brain say, ‘This is very important. Never forget this.’ for example, if the August 17th earthquake happened at three in the morning, no one forgets that date. That fear shock was experienced, and that fear made that information in the brain permanent information.” he said.

“A strong person is someone who has well-trained the frontal region of their brain”

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, underlining the importance of resilience training in the brain; “The human brain operates programmed according to survival. The priority is related to survival. If a person manages this energy well and takes necessary precautions… There are skills for remaining calm under stress. Especially in attention training for children, by working on skills to remain calm under stress, there are drug-free attention training methods and stress management methods. There is resilience training in the brain. This resilience training creates a network in the brain, but in the frontal lobe, which is the brain's anterior, decision-making region. If a person trains that region well, they become a strong person. A strong person means someone who has well-trained the frontal region of their brain.” he said.

“The infrastructure in the brain needs to be corrected”

Tarhan emphasized that for a person's spiritual program to function in the brain, the brain's infrastructure needs to be corrected; “Our brain works with typical engineering methods. The reason for the new understanding of the brain in engineering methods was that when engineering was mentioned, Newtonian physics was understood. Now, quantum physics and probability calculations are understood. The physics that currently constitutes artificial intelligence is not specifically in computers. It is currently fuzzy logic. An Azerbaijani discovers this. They are doing its calculation in the brain. Probability is not just black or white. There are also grey backgrounds and areas. It's a computational system that can calculate all of these. One of the Nobel laureates in 2004 was a geneticist, and another a cognitive psychologist. What is a cognitive psychologist? It is the branch of psychology that views the brain like a computer. The person working on artificial neural networks in the brain unexpectedly received a physics award for their contribution to artificial intelligence. Our brain works like an engineer running a factory, exactly like that. The diseases we call psychiatric diseases in the brain are brain diseases. Addiction, depression are brain diseases. When you fix the underlying infrastructure in the brain, therapies come later. Then the underlying electrical structure needs to be corrected. After correcting the chemical and electrical structure, then the higher-level information. If the electronic circuits are disordered before these connections in the computer are fixed, the program will not run, it will not work. For a person's spiritual program to function in the brain, the brain's infrastructure also needs to be corrected.” he stated.

“TMU is currently the most effective and successful area in clinical practice”

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan provided information about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMU) therapy. Tarhan; “This is currently the most effective and successful area in clinical practice. For example, the treatment method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS-TMU. This treatment method applies a magnetic field to the brain. It does not apply electricity to the brain. It applies a magnetic field similar to an MRI. A reverse tissue current is formed in the brain. This tissue current has voltage-gated ion channels in the brain, such as sodium, potassium, and calcium. There are receptors where they bind. It changes receptor sensitivity. For voltage-gated ion channels, for example, depending on the disease, if it is in the negative, it reduces it. According to the stimulus given in the negative, for example, you give inhibitory stimuli, you give high frequency. If there is slowing down or fatigue in the brain, if there are delta waves, theta waves, it means that the energy flow, signal flow in the brain has slowed down. Then high frequency is given, and that disturbed rhythm in the brain is corrected. If there are no beta waves in the brain, because if there are and stress is very high, then low-frequency waves like one Hz are given. This time, you suppress that overactivity in the brain and calm it down. With this, the receptor sensitivity in the brain increases. In high sensitivity, for example, the receptor pulls its sensitivity down. If it is insensitive, it stimulates the receptors. It operates the opening and closing mechanisms of the receptors.” he explained.

“Psychiatric illness is actually a region of the brain not communicating”

Tarhan also underlined personalized treatment; “It activates the brain's natural tissue current. No external current is applied to the brain. The electromagnetic field enables the brain to do it itself. It activates dormant areas in the brain. It performs resynchronization in the brain. It corrects coherence. It corrects rhythm. What we call psychiatric illnesses in the brain are actually a region of the brain not communicating. For example, they connect with each other with lithium. They open the pathways there with lithium. Lithium, for example, triggers by affecting the sodium-potassium channels there. It facilitates firing. It has a similar effect, but while giving that magnetic stimulation therapy to the brain, along with the treatment called TMS and TMU, it is also currently recommending digital therapeutics, look. Personalized treatment. Digital drugs. For example, with VR glasses made for that person, and with augmented reality, you show information specially produced for that person simultaneously. There, we teach the person to overcome their fear. Fear of spiders, fear of heights, social fear, social phobia fear. This is done for children with this and digital games. Digital games, digital therapeutics are being tried to treat Alzheimer's forgetfulness with digital therapeutics. Our colleagues have currently received a TÜBİTAK project for this. They are doing it that way. These will happen in the future anyway.” he said.

“One type of harm to a patient is leaving them untreated”

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan emphasized that more time should be allocated to preventive medicine; “First, a diagnosis needs to be made. After diagnosing, the indication should be set, and then treatment should be performed and followed up. Hippocrates says it, but one type of harm to a patient is leaving a patient untreated. If there is an innovative treatment that has emerged somewhere in the world and is necessary for that patient, not applying it to that patient, or at least not telling the patient that there is an option for this, is also a responsibility. This should also be noted. The treatment dimension here is this. There is also an overlooked education in medical faculties, which is not allocated much time: preventive medicine. Primary, secondary, and tertiary protections. Primary protection refers to efforts made for healthy individuals in society not to fall ill. Secondary protection involves identifying these risk groups and ensuring that people do not fall ill through early diagnosis. Tertiary protection involves following up on a disease in someone who has had it and trying to prevent recurrence. These protections are also important. Sixty to seventy percent of all diseases are related to a person's wrong way of living.” he stated.

“We need to enlighten ourselves for correct choices”

Tarhan, speaking about the need to correct one's philosophy of life; “Wrong decisions, wrong choices, a wrong philosophy of life. Going to bed late, being overweight. Not paying attention to what you eat and drink, not paying attention to your social relationships, and people think they pay attention to what they eat and drink, eating everything meticulously, but they don't pay attention to their thoughts. Thoughts also need to be chosen. Emotions also need to be chosen. If we train the frontal region of our brain, there is a jury in the frontal region of our brain. Look, there is a judge presiding over this jury. A thought comes to our mind, a feeling comes, an idea comes. That jury makes quick decisions immediately. Appropriate, not appropriate. Valid, not valid. Beneficial, not beneficial. Safe, not safe. Beautiful, not beautiful. We train the jury president. The jury president is the judge. When we train him, the brain correctly processes everything, right, wrong, but the jury president will also have a measure in his hand. He will have an overseer, a guide. There will be a comparison. If there is, that person will have a choice between wrong and right and make the correct decision. A new option will emerge. Life is already made up of our choices. Therefore, to be able to make the right choices, we need to enlighten ourselves. We need to correct our philosophy of life. Live right, be happy. Live right, be healthy, we can say.” he concluded.