Matter Neuroscience announces collaboration with Stanford Medicine combining Matter protocol with real-time fMRI neurofeedback to support emotion-based interventions in depression

This collaboration sets out to explore whether using the Matter Neuroscience protocol combined with real-time neurofeedback can influence emotional brain networks relevant to depression.

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Matter Neuroscience is pleased to announce a collaboration with Stanford Medicine’s Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department.

The controlled, multi-arm study will enroll at least 210 depressed patients with the objective to significantly reduce clinical endpoints using real-time 7T fMRI neurofeedback in combination with the Matter protocol selectively activating key brain areas hosting distinct positive emotions. The clinical endpoints are paralleled with several molecular, emotional and behavioral biomarkers.

If successful, the findings can be integrated into a full-scale clinical trial with the potential to inform future non-pharmaceutical curative therapies for depression. Professor Nolan Williams, M.D. an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab will serve as the Principal Investigator on the study.

“This study allows us to investigate how targeted emotion training, guided by real-time fMRI, may influence mood-related brain circuits,” said Dr. Williams. “What makes this particularly interesting is the opportunity to evaluate both the neural mechanisms involved in emotion regulation and the feasibility of translating this approach into a deliverable treatment in the clinic or home one day.”

Matter CEO Axel Bouchon shares, “After we have seen positive effects in emotional wellbeing of healthy individuals in our studies in the past 4-5 years, it is just one of the most exciting studies I have witnessed in my career. Ultimately, we try to use the latest advancements in MRI technology and the patients’ good memories as a personalized medicine to reduce, maybe permanently cure, their depressive symptoms.”

About Matter

Matter Neuroscience was founded in 2019 by Axel Bouchon and Ben Goldhirsh. Matter’s mission is to use neuroscience to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.

Matter Neuroscience runs a consumer technology business (https://matter.xyz) and a medical business addressing healthy individuals and patients, respectively.

Matter is led by CEO Axel Bouchon (Moderna, Bayer, ARCH Venture Partners.) Ben Goldhirsh (GOOD Worldwide and the Goldhirsh Foundation) serves as Matter’s Chairman and Head of Product.

Visit www.matter.xyz to learn more about Matter. Download the Matter app, named “App of the Day” on Apple’s App Store. Follow Matter on Instagram and Tiktok for education and inspiration for living a happier life.

About the Matter Protocol

Matter Neuroscience and its academic partners in Maastricht and Copenhagen have conducted several research studies successfully identifying a human map for distinct positive emotions in the brain. Using this map as a directional biomarker, a team led by Professor Rainer Goebel at the Maastricht Brain Imaging Center in the Netherlands developed a protocol that allows for training and intensifying distinct human emotions using real-time fMRI neurofeedback with autobiographical memories.

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SOURCE Matter Neuroscience