India Unveils MANAS 1 AI to Decode Brainwaves for Early Disorder Detection

The AI model, trained on 60,000 hours of EEG recordings from over 25,000 patients, was developed by Intellihealth (NeuroDx) under neurologist Dr. Puneet Agarwal, former AIIMS professor, and released as open source on Hugging Face.

India has unveiled MANAS 1, an artificial intelligence platform designed to interpret brainwaves and enable earlier detection of neurological and psychiatric disorders. 

The AI model, trained on 60,000 hours of EEG recordings from over 25,000 patients, was developed by Intellihealth (NeuroDx) under neurologist Dr. Puneet Agarwal, former AIIMS professor, and released as open source on Hugging Face.

MANAS 1 is a Brain Language Foundation Model built on 400 million parameters. Unlike conventional AI, which primarily analyses visual or text-based data, MANAS 1 is trained to decode EEG signals, the electrical activity of the brain. Developers describe it as a foundational platform on which disease-specific AI tools can be built, targeting conditions such as epilepsy, dementia, and other neurological disorders.

“MANAS 1 is designed to understand the basic language of the brain,” Dr. Agarwal told TOI. He compared the model to ChatGPT in concept, noting that it interprets large-scale brainwave data that traditional imaging tests like MRI cannot fully decode. The platform could also help researchers explore brain functions that remain poorly understood.

Public health applications are a key focus. India faces a shortage of neurologists and psychiatrists outside major cities, and brain disorders are often diagnosed late, increasing disability and long-term costs. MANAS 1-derived tools could assist doctors at community health centres, district hospitals, and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs with preliminary screenings and timely referrals. Any disease-specific AI model built on MANAS 1 would require regulatory approvals before clinical use.

A next-generation version, MANAS 2, is expected in the coming weeks. Experts say AI systems like MANAS 1 could shorten the gap between symptom onset and diagnosis, a critical factor in conditions such as epilepsy and dementia. The platform represents a step toward using AI to read the brain’s electrical language, potentially transforming research, diagnosis, and access to care across India.

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