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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Non-invasive brain stimulation is to be trialled for the first time alongside advanced brain imaging techniques in patients who are minimally conscious or in a vegetative state.
The study builds on promising results from the Centre for Human Brain Health at the University of Birmingham which suggested that non-invasive brain stimulation can improve the success of rehabilitation for non-responsive patients.
The RAINDROP trial, a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and The Wellington Hospital, part of HCA Healthcare UK, will use advanced brain imaging technologies to track the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation in a small group of patients. The aim is to better understand how stimulation techniques can be harnessed to improve communication and recovery, with the hope of one day offering improved rehabilitation rates for non-responsive patients with a prolonged disorder of consciousness.
Improvements in trauma care have increased the chances of surviving the most severe brain injuries. Recent research has shown that as many as 20% of these patients retain a much higher level of awareness than could be expected from their clinical diagnoses -- however, these patients remain unable to demonstrate their awareness, trapped in their unresponsive bodies.
Previous research by the Centre for Human Brain Health at the University of Birmingham and Western University, Canada, pinpointed what happens in the brain to cause this unresponsive behaviour -- suggesting for the first time a potential target for treatment.
In the RAINDROP study, researchers will work with five patients in The Wellington Hospital's Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness Unit (PDoCU) to examine how a form of brain stimulation called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be used to identify and treat damaged connections within the brain.
During the treatment, low levels of direct current are targeted at specific areas of the brain via electrodes placed on the patient's head. The current is applied to a region at the top of the brain responsible for motor control, and also directed at the thalamus, a region deep inside the brain which relays motor signals and controls consciousness.
While the stimulation is delivered, researchers will use multimodal brain imaging, to measure the effect on brain function. These techniques include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which looks at changes in blood flow to measure activity in different areas of the brain, and electrophysiology, which measures the electrical activity generated by neurons as they fire in the brain.
[...] "We've already been able to show that these techniques have potential among healthy subjects. This important next step will enable us to test their effect among patients."
[...] The RAINDROP study is the first step of a long-term collaboration between Dr Fernández-Espejo and Dr Damian Cruse at the Centre for Human Brain Health and the Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness Unit at The Wellington Hospital to investigate novel bedside methods for diagnosis and rehabilitation in prolonged disorders of consciousness. If successful, the study will inform a large clinical trial that will recruit patients from multiple specialised centres across the UK.
The study was announced today [18-Oct-2019] at the 'Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness: From Scientific Discovery to Clinical Practice' conference.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 22 2019, @02:44PM (3 children)
There's been research into "12VDC applied to electrodes on the temples" brain stimulation for some time, it does... something, but apparently not anything exciting enough to spawn any successful "as seen on TV" or well known internet direct marketed products, yet.
And... ECT for depression (with past applications for various other mental disorders including homosexuality) is constantly "improving" their "new low current treatments" which started out at 125VAC-60Hz.
I find the weirdest and wackiest therapies tend to be practiced in the (insensitively referred to as) vegetable gardens. Any time they get even a single recovery, a flurry of papers appear.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday October 22 2019, @02:51PM (1 child)
Since many electrical outlets have somewhat lower voltages, and to ensure safety, I'm assuming a Variac [amazon.com] would be used?
Since this would be a "medical" variac, I would expect it to be FDA approved and cost many thousands of dollars.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 22 2019, @03:24PM
In 1938 the psychiatric hospitals weren't bothered by FDA style regulation, and I don't think they even bothered with Variacs at first:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy [wikipedia.org]
Also, even today, FDA approves nothing. They grudgingly grant, and require (with spotty enforcement), permission to market.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday October 22 2019, @05:35PM
"There's been research into "12VDC applied to electrodes on the temples" brain stimulation for some time, it does... something, but apparently not anything exciting enough"
This is what happens when you send young American boys to middle of nowhere places like the Afghanistan for long tours: they become so bored out of their skulls that they end up attaching Hummer batteries to their heads, and claim it makes them smarter, which is not necessarily untrue, since they have only one direction to go in that regard. But now it has spread to actual, like, medicine? As Spock would say, "Fascinating".