from the unfortunately-its-an-auto-battery dept.
mendax writes:
The New York Times published an article on a new device that can be implanted which can stop epileptic attacks in their tracks.
Just approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the long-awaited device, called the RNS System, aims to reduce seizures and to improve the lives of an estimated 400,000 Americans whose epilepsy cannot be treated with drugs or brain surgery.
The device, which requires a battery change every two to three years, works only for people whose seizures start in one or two places in their brain. Electrical stimulation delivered through thin wires placed precisely at those places helps prevent an incipient seizure from spreading.
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The Telegraph reports on work published in Current Biology (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.076) in which researchers
[...] propose that a risk factor for seizures in patients with photosensitive epilepsy is engagement of the circuitry that produces gamma oscillations.
Gamma oscillations are brain waves that oscillate at frequencies in the 30 to 80 Hz range. One researcher told the Telegraph:
Our findings imply that in designing buildings, it may be important to avoid the types of visual patterns that can activate this circuit and cause discomfort, migraines, or seizures [...] Even perfectly healthy people may feel modest discomfort from the images that are most likely to trigger seizures in photosensitive epilepsy.
Related stories:
Migraine, Epilepsy Drug Caused Serious Birth Defects in Thousands of French Children
Epilepsy-Triggering Suspect Charged, More Details on the Arrest
Alleged Epilepsy-Triggering Troll Arrested by the FBI
Epilepsy Patient Assaulted Via Twitter
Easing Epilepsy With Battery Power
(Score: 1) by hopp on Wednesday March 26 2014, @12:43AM
Which didn't really have the best performance...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10103302 [nih.gov]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by demonlapin on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:54AM
(Score: 2) by lennier on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:38AM
I'm sure there will be no negative consequences whatever [wikipedia.org]
Except for experimental subjects possibly turning into robot dinosaur gunslingers in the Congo who are hypnotic supermodels and creating a global climate change conspiracy with an alien sphere that grants wishes while time travelling to 14th century France.
Delenda est Beta
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 26 2014, @10:00AM
I'll just change my batteries, then I'll be back.