DARPA ‘CoasterChase’ looks to mitigate stress with ingestible neurotech

DARPA is putting together a research program called CoasterChase that aims to mitigate warfighters’ stress response under extreme conditions by creating an ingestible platform that stimulates neurons in the small intestine.

Last week, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) put out a special notice for the upcoming CoasterChase research program that will be “exploring the effects of multiple stimulus modalities on the neurons of the small intestine as well as developing a sensing and stimulation platform in an ingestible form factor.”

According to the special notice, “CoasterChase will deliver a new understanding of enteric neuromodulation” by “exploring the response properties of neuropeptide Y (NPY)-producing enteric neurons as well as understanding requirements necessary to cause a stimulus-evoked change in the concentrations of cortisol and NPY.”

Before going any further, let’s breakdown what is enteric neuromodulation.

The enteric nervous system “is the functional interconnection between the gastrointestinal tract and central and peripheral nervous systems, constantly sensing and actuating the state and function of the esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, liver, pancreas, and gallbladder,” according to a study published in 2020 in the Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine journal.

And according to the International Neuromodulation Society, neuromodulation is defined as “the alteration of nerve activity through targeted delivery of a stimulus, such as electrical stimulation or chemical agents, to specific neurological sites in the body.”

So, what DARPA is looking to achieve with CoasterChase is to see if there is a way to develop a sensing and stimulation platform that can be ingested, possibly a programmable electronic pill, that specifically stimulates the lower intestine, with the theory that it will modulate stress response, improve decision making, and possibly mitigate long-term PTSD.

The main point of contact for CoasterChase is DARPA program manager Dr. Pedro Irazoqui.

Dr. Irazoqui joined DARPA as a program director in January 2024, and prior to that, he held high level positions at Johns Hopkins University and Perdue University where he specialized “in wearable and implantable wireless medical devices for treating diverse neural pathologies.”

He is also the current program lead on at least two other DARPA research programs that we’ve covered here on The Sociable:

• Alert WARfighter Enablement (AWARE), which aims to help increase alertness following sleep loss by shining near-infrared light into people’s brains that if successful, would be able to activate and deactivate drugs in their bodies on demand.
• Bridging the Gap Plus (BG+), which aims to restore natural functions such as breathing, bowel and bladder control, movement, touch, and proprioception that can be lost when the spinal cord is damaged.

CoasterChase is a 24-month fundamental research program with two 12-month phases (base and
option) that addresses two parallel functional areas:

1. Exploring enteric targets and stimulation parameters to modulate biomarkers of acute stress in empirical models, and the second functional area.
2. Developing of hardware capable of enteric sensing and stimulation in an ingestible form factor.

The CoasterChase research program will expand upon the lessons learned from similar DARPA programs, such as N3, HAPTIX, and ElectRx, which had to do with developing brain-computer interfaces, neuromodulation, and controlling prosthetic limbs.

When all these programs are combined, a greater picture emerges of the future of warfare, where warfighters are turned into super-soldiers that can perform tasks of which no natural human being would be capable.

After going through military use, what other applications could be derived from these technologies?

Will they stay with the Pentagon, or will they make a beeline for the medical field?

Is it possible that they will make their way into the commercial sector for those rich and powerful enough to afford their own human enhancement?

The advantages that one person could have over the rest of the population would be astounding — one that would require us to rethink what it is to actually be human, and the ethical and legal considerations that go with it.

Image Source: AI-generated by Grok