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By David Stephen
There is a recent [November 21, 2025] press release, ARPA-H to invest in leading-edge approaches to mental health treatment, stating that, “The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) today announced it will invest up to $100 million in more quantitative measures of mental and behavioral health through its new Evidence-Based Validation & Innovation for Rapid Therapeutics in Behavioral Health (EVIDENT) initiative.”
“EVIDENT will pursue two foundational components to improve behavioral and mental health care: more robust data on individual clinical outcomes, as well as a patient’s unique response to novel treatment approaches. Establishing such objective measures of mental and behavioral health will accelerate innovative diagnostics and treatments for these disorders.”
How do you measure human mental health? Currently in all of neuroscience, there is no answer. But if this were the mission, what would be done, at least conceptually?
Do you measure neurons? Do you measure synapses? Or, what is it that can be measured to determine the difference between a major depressive disorder, a mild depressive disorder, momentary sadness and a normal state?
In discussing measurement, there at least has to be components to measure, then patterns or mechanisms that can be used to place states, as well as understand their extents. So, what do the components do, when there is a depressive state, and what do they do when there isn’t?
Simply, what are the components of mental health and disorders in the brain? The question means that while everything in the brain is important, what exactly directly arranges mental states, such that they must be affected [because they are the direct report] for a mental state to change for better or otherwise? Say, two components are identified, how do they interact, what are their attributes, how do those attributes lead to states?
Could ARPA-H setup a new human mind research lab? Doing an intramural moonshot and intensively?
Human Intelligence
What exactly is human intelligence? Like, what does it mean that a human being can perform a task with intelligence? What are the components of intelligence in the brain? What are their relays? What are their mechanisms?
How can human intelligence be prepared for the future that AI dominates? How does human intelligence extend the likelihood for problem-solving? Could ARPA-H set up a new human intelligence research lab?
The Human Mind
The human mind, distinct from the body, can be conceptually described as the collection of all the electrical and chemical configurators — with their interactions and attributes, in sets, in clusters of neurons — across the central and peripheral nervous systems.
Simply, the human mind is the set[s] of [neuro]configurators. Interactions means the strike of electrical configurators on chemical configurators, in sets. This means that anything that can have an effect on electrical configurators or chemical configurators can influence the mind. So, functions are from interactions. While attributes qualify the functions or determine the limits or extents for those functions.
This definition assumes that instead of assuming that electrical and chemical impulses or signals, are for communication between neurons, it is possible to say that they are the basis for the configuration of functions, including all mental states, at least directly.
Even if other parts of the brain are implicated, electrical and chemical configurators have to be affected for something to result.
This is the first theory that moves beyond neurons in the brain, to explain by electrical and chemical configurators. This is a direction towards moving forward in mental health care, as well as re-explaining all the conditions in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision [DSM-5-TR].
The key problems in the news in recent years around neuroscience has been about the mind, mental health, problem gambling, overdoses and now human intelligence, with the risk of replacement by artificial intelligence. For ARPA-H, the urgency is not just to try, but the basis for progress and to lead the rest of the world.
ARPA-H
There is a new [November 24, 2025] press release, HHS Announces Five New Agency Leaders to Advance MAHA Goals, stating that, “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced five new agency leaders who will serve our nation’s families and advance goals to Make America Healthy Again. Four of these five presidential appointees required and recently received Senate confirmation.”
“Alicia Jackson joins ARPA-H from Evernow, a company she founded and led as CEO, focused on transforming women’s health and longevity. Previously, she served as a Program Manager and subsequently Deputy Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Biological Technologies Office, guiding an investment portfolio across biodefense, novel medicine development, and biomanufacturing to protect the nation while advancing groundbreaking scientific capabilities. She has served as a Senate policy advisor, as well as co-founder, Board Member, and advisor of several biotech and health startups, including OOVA, ImmuneBridge, and Drawbridge Health. Dr. Jackson holds a Ph.D. in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
