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posted by janrinok on Friday February 09 2018, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the I've-forgotten-the-dept dept.

An experimental and invasive brain implant tested in people with epilepsy has been found to boost memory:

Scientists have developed a brain implant that noticeably boosted memory in its first serious test run, perhaps offering a promising new strategy to treat dementia, traumatic brain injuries and other conditions that damage memory.

The device works like a pacemaker, sending electrical pulses to aid the brain when it is struggling to store new information, but remaining quiet when it senses that the brain is functioning well.

In the test, reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02753-0] [DX], the device improved word recall by 15 percent — roughly the amount that Alzheimer's disease steals over two and half years.

There's also an AI/machine learning angle.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by dbe on Friday February 09 2018, @01:45AM (6 children)

    by dbe (1422) on Friday February 09 2018, @01:45AM (#635346)

    Basically the FDA has a very loose requirement for safety inspection for any implant, much looser than for drugs.
    The tests groups are really limited and the reports of death related to the device are mostly never filled.
    Most damning is companies get per-approval pending final reports on bigger groups but almost never submit those.

    If you listen to this segment on NPR it's really instructive how the FDA is playing with patient lives.
    https://www.npr.org/2018/01/17/578562873/are-implanted-medical-devices-creating-a-danger-within-us [npr.org]

    If you have exhausted any other possibility maybe? But apparently implanting anything in the human body is a bit of a random draw...
    -dbe

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @02:57AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @02:57AM (#635365)

      ... because it's exactly the plot of The Terminal Man and the brain pacemaker idea worked out so very well in the end?

    • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Friday February 09 2018, @02:25PM (3 children)

      by unauthorized (3776) on Friday February 09 2018, @02:25PM (#635505)

      So, basically what they are doing is overclocking the brain. The long-term effects would be interesting to observe, in computers the effect tend to shorten the lifespan of the machine and introduce subtle but significant computational errors. There is a silver lining through, biological machinery is a lot more adaptable to damage than machinery so the best case scenario is that the brain pathways will reinforce themselves to make up for the artificially heightened activity.

      Personally, I'd rather roll the dice than quietly accept dementia. Being dead is worse than living with severe cognitive decline. No thank you, I'm not going to live through the state of being vegetable if I can help it.

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 09 2018, @03:29PM (1 child)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday February 09 2018, @03:29PM (#635524)

        There's a problem with severe cognitive decline - when it's really severe, the victim is unaware how bad it is, this is when you hope that your friends and family can give you good advice.

        As for "overclocking the brain" - the mechanism of action of a lot of neurostimulation is simply to up-regulate the system based on the additional activity. Some people can get similar changes by simply getting out of bed, going outside and experiencing the world. Personally, I like driving the convertible to/from work with the top down, which (in good weather) can sometimes get enough seratonin going to elicit jaw-locked tooth grinding, similar to what Prozac patients describe.

        The problem with any of this is: once you establish a new baseline that's your new normal. In cases where the old normal was non-functional and the new normal is functional, that's infinite improvement, but in the more common case of a little up-regulation, it can be hard to tell the difference after you've been living in the new state for a while - though if you withdraw the up-regulating influence you usually do notice the regression/decline.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Friday February 09 2018, @05:48PM

          by unauthorized (3776) on Friday February 09 2018, @05:48PM (#635606)

          There's a problem with severe cognitive decline - when it's really severe, the victim is unaware how bad it is, this is when you hope that your friends and family can give you good advice.

          Certainly, but unless it's the consequence of injury, such decline rarely happens overnight, giving the afflicted a chance to make up their minds while they still have them. And if this procedure establishes itself, people can just make contingency plans for what to happen with them, should they abruptly become incapable of making the decision.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 09 2018, @08:10PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 09 2018, @08:10PM (#635683) Journal

        If a treatment shortens life but produces superior quality of life, is it worth it?

        I think the answer should be up to the person whose quality of life is affected. Oh, oh! Quick! We need to get the government involved in decisions like this!

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 09 2018, @03:18PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday February 09 2018, @03:18PM (#635521)

      Severe untreatable epileptics are a rather desperate group - life for them and their families is so bad that they're willing to try just about anything.

      Brain implants are still very crude tools - 20+ years ago my family (who all have mild Parkinsons-like symptoms) watched with rapt attention as 60 minutes showed a segment on the first Parkinsons patients to receive DBS therapy. Our conclusion: yeah, the guy is clearly improved, but on a scale of 1-10, he went from a 9 down to about a 6, which is a huge deal for him, but we're all running in the 2-4 range, hoping to get lower - but not willing to go to brain surgery to get there.

      They have refined the technology a little in the passing decades, but not much - stimulation locations are still crudely defined, and the stimulation itself acts more as a baseline re-regulation of neurotransmitters than any kind of specific signaling mechanism.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @02:53AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @02:53AM (#635364)

    Do you think about your vibrator during sex with your boyfriend? Did you dump your boyfriend for your vibrator? Good news, ladies. You can enjoy sex with men again as soon as your man gets this patented new implant: Epilepsy Cock.

    • (Score: 1) by DannyB on Friday February 09 2018, @08:15PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 09 2018, @08:15PM (#635686) Journal

      Offensive. Insensitive. One single crucial word in your post reveals that you are at least sexist, in that you seem to believe your proposed treatment should only be FDA approved for females.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @06:02AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @06:02AM (#635404)

    Only three comments? Perhaps you would have preferred a nice aristarchus submission instead? Just saying, in case the eds are listening, to the will of the Soylentils.

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday February 09 2018, @05:52PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Friday February 09 2018, @05:52PM (#635610) Journal

    Most causes of Epilepsy are still unknown. Electroshock has had some seriously shady history. The brain is an incredibly complex organ and we are barely scraping the surface of understanding. But, by all means, lets hook up something and shock that bad boy. What could possibly go wrong?

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
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