4 ms·

Truth be told, these are early days even though we have used stimulation for a while now (artificial cardiac pacemakers). After all, this is brain surgery. You

by npalli 13y ago

Truth be told, these are early days even though we have used stimulation for a while now (artificial cardiac pacemakers). After all, this is brain surgery. You implant electrodes bilaterally into the deep brain (thalamic region for Parkinson's) and send small shocks. The hope is this in turn will impact the neuronal signaling that causes excessive or too little movement. In addition, it is not clear what the signals do the nearby neurons (question: do they die and in turn what happens to other brain functions etc.) and impact over longer term as you keep stimulating (what happens to the neurotransmitter responses etc.). So, definitely a lot of studies like the DARPA one need to be undertaken. So the usual caveats apply. You need to have tried other means (pharmacological, exercise), need to be healthy and willing to risk adverse consequences. In the case of the video linked, it is somewhat of a no brainer. The person is young 39 years old with a family. He seems to have a pretty bad case of Parkinsons. I'm sure he is willing to enjoy a much better quality of life even if it is risky.

caycep 13y ago
Actually, DBS has been around since the 1980's, just Medtronic sat on the patent and it was little more than a glorified converted cardiac pacemaker. now the patent is up, all of the sudden all sorts of research into closed-loop stimulation, electrode designs, battery design, etc suddenly pops out of the woodwork. They're trying to do some sort of closed loop feedback instead of some clinician inputting random settings of volts/frequency/pulse width into the device, but no one knows exactly what signals in the brain to listen for yet. The EE-oriented neuro types are looking at signal processing, i.e. using FFT's to look at power spectra of local recordings, etc, but nothing too promising yet. As far as what the physiologic mechanism of the electrical stimulation does, no one really knows, but there's some data from monkeys and mice optogenetics suggesting it activates passing axonal fibers. Generally, nerves don't die due to the electricity, unless your surgeon does the implant French-style and shoves a 5-microelectrode array into your head, therefore boring a nice 2-4mm tunnel into your brain...

by npalli 13y ago

caycep 13y ago

Actually, DBS has been around since the 1980's, just Medtronic sat on the patent and it was little more than a glorified converted cardiac pacemaker. now the patent is up, all of the sudden all sorts of research into closed-loop stimulation, electrode designs, battery design, etc suddenly pops out of the woodwork. They're trying to do some sort of closed loop feedback instead of some clinician inputting random settings of volts/frequency/pulse width into the device, but no one knows exactly what signals in the brain to listen for yet. The EE-oriented neuro types are looking at signal processing, i.e. using FFT's to look at power spectra of local recordings, etc, but nothing too promising yet. As far as what the physiologic mechanism of the electrical stimulation does, no one really knows, but there's some data from monkeys and mice optogenetics suggesting it activates passing axonal fibers. Generally, nerves don't die due to the electricity, unless your surgeon does the implant French-style and shoves a 5-microelectrode array into your head, therefore boring a nice 2-4mm tunnel into your brain...