The Advantages Of Deep Brain Stimulation

3. The newest treatment available is Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) which is a procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of

The brain is one of the most complex organ in our bodies. To learn about the brain scientists use electrical stimulation. Electrical stimulation is the use of electrical probes to determine functions of the brain. Clinical observation of patients have also helped scientists learn more about the brain. Case studies of different patients such as Phineas Gage have helped to learn about the different functions of the brain and how they work together to perform complex activities. (Barron’s AP Psychology 6th Edition)

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a procedure where electrodes are surgically implanted in the brain to stimulate or inhibit electrical signals within it; the effects of DBS can be turned on and off and the level of stimulation can be adjusted. It has been shown to be effective in improving motor abilities and quality of life in those with Parkinson’s disease (Weaver, et al. 2009), and has been used for other psychiatric disorders such as anorexia, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and more (Benabid 2007). Although DBS is very beneficial, in some cases an altered personality or state of mind is an adverse effect from the procedure.

This is a procedure where electric currents are controlled and pass through the brain while the patient is completely unconscious. A brief supervised seizure affects the chemicals in the brain which treats the severe cases of depression and mania that medication did nothing. After the patients regained consciousness, they were able to resume normal activity in about an hour or so. The side effects of this treatment include headaches, muscle pain, and memory loss of the weeks or months prior to the procedure (Pattanshetti,

Consciousness is the state of being awake and aware of your surroundings. Individuals with epilepsy have problems with regaining a conscious state of mind after having a seizure. They never know when a seizure is coming or how long it will take to recover from one, so they have to alter their activities until they are aware of their surroundings again. Thalamic stimulation or deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an approach that helps to demonstrate a way to treat neurological disorders such as epilepsy by surgically implanting small electrodes into parts of the brain and stimulating that area with low to high electrical impulses. Thalamic stimulation is important to individuals that have epilepsy because it will help them regain consciousness quicker and return back to their regular routine. The following article attempted to explain this procedure and its importance.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation also commonly known as rTMS is a neurostimulation technique which uses electromagnetic energy to stimulate portions of the brain. The existence of Transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is based on the science of bioelectricity, is relatively unknown to the wider masses. The health benefits it can offer covers a wide spectrum of people requiring mental wellness. The use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has been approved by Health Canada since 2002.

However, radial currents cannot be measured accurately because of the dipole orientation and direction, therefore producing no magnetic field outside the head. Deep structures are also hard to detect using MEG. Mikuni et al. (1997) examined a 30-year-old woman who had complex seizures since she was 13. A 25-minute EEG recording revealed 217 epileptiform responses located at the mesial temporal lobe. They found that MEG only localized 40 of these unusual post-synaptic potentials. Further support comes from Goldenholz et al (2009) investigated the signal to noise ratio (SNR) from different sources in 4 subjects. A higher SNR was detected using MEG, however much lower SNR was found for deeper sources. The opposite was true for EEG. These findings can be explained due to potential insufficient coverage of the helmet to deeper parts of the brain, thus few magnetic signals can be detected. Also, the shape of epileptogenic regions, such as the hippocampus is not circular; therefore if the spherical model is fitted then this may produce discrepancies between the data. Therefore, MEG use in treating epilepsy can be effective, if epileptogenic regions are near the surface and discharges are non-radial, but if not, MEG may not be optimal in aiding

This paper was a ground-breaking entry into the combined usage of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and optogenetics. Studies involving DBS are usually met with potential confounders as to the route of therapeutic intervention. The authors mentioned three, the first being the difficulty in determining specific circuits responsible due to the complexity of nervous tissue. Another being that DBS makes use of high frequency stimulation (HFS) which itself produces a myriad of changes in activity that can be hard to pin down in target cells. The final being that DBS creates artefacts through electrical stimulation that clouds target cell responses in neural circuits1. Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is characterized by a loss of dopamine in the striatum that results in both motor and affective pathologies. Specifically modulated are the direct and indirect pathways in the basal ganglia. The indirect pathway is studied in this paper and comprises the global pallidus interna and its afferent synapses on the subthalamic nucleus.2 To address this aspect of PD and the aforementioned DBS issues the authors decided to make use of channel rhodopsins, halorhodopsins, optrodes and optical stimulation. To induce the PD symptoms, rodents were injected with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) to induce hemi parkinsonian symptoms on the contralateral side and in vivo delivery of ChR2 and NpHR was done via lentiviruses.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation is a form of neurostimulation in which mild electrical currents are delivered to the desired portion of the brain using electrodes that are placed on the scalp. Based on several recent studies, its application is thought to immediately boost memory, focus, energy, and vigilance, as well as assisting in the treatment of a wide range of drug-resistant mental illnesses. So far, the number of complications found associated with tDCS is greatly outnumbered by the number of benefits. There are two types of neural stimulation involved: anodal and cathodal. Anodal stimulation is meant to excite neuronal activity while cathodal stimulation is meant to inhibit or reduce neuronal activity.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) implantation is a procedure to insert a wire (lead) into one or both sides of the brain in order to deliver electrical currents to an area causing problems. The lead is attached to a power source that is implanted under the skin near the collarbone, chest, or abdomen. This procedure may be done to treat various medical conditions, such as Parkinson disease, essential tremor, and other neurological conditions that cannot be controlled with medicines.

In conclusion, their hypothesis was proven correct. The stimulation technique used in this experiment can be compared to DBS in human treatment, and it shows that low amplitude high frequency stimulation is the best way to lateral thalamus nucleus to activate the cortex. For future studies they suggested that the time of stimulation after the seizure should be monitored and the type of stimulation. This technique has the potential to help people with epilepsy recover after having a seizure, in order for them to continue their daily routines without worrying as much about the problems after a

One of the limitations in this study is that the add on effect cannot be excluded as patients took medications that could have analgesic effect that could interact with brain stimulation, and the few number of sessions is considered another limitation to this study. As regard blindness, although the literature is still unclear if participants themselves are able to differentiate between 2 mA active stimulation and placebo treatment, it has been found that redness of the skin is a possible clue for researchers to differentiate between the two(62,63). It is important that these results stem from crossover studies, in which subtle differences between treatments and the effects on each individual participant attract more attention. In a large sample

This is a new sophisticated system. This treatment makes use of a small device with headphones. The device creates a sound which is unique to each patient. The sound contains pleasant music. According to this method, your brain learns a new way of interpreting sound. Some patients experience some relief almost immediately, but the whole program takes at least a 6-month period to complete.

The topic of optogenetics is one of vast and exciting proportions. In short, it is an emerging science that combines both genetics and optics to affect neuron action. By using light to activate certain neurons, we can see the kind of behavior they normally exhibit and thereby assess their impact on brain processing. Conversely inhibition of these same neurons can inform us of what the neurons are necessary for. This ability to activate or inactivate certain neurons at the flick of a switch (no pun intended) in different locations of the brain is a super powerful tool that can be used to determine the functions of cell types in circuits of different regions of the brain like the basal ganglia or cerebellum.

What is Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation? Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation is the application of extremely low levels of electricity applied to the brain for the treatment of a wide range of psychiatric and medical disorders. [5] Implementing this treatment to the astronauts will provide a solution to sleep loss and other disorders that can be developed due to the isolation and confinement of space. Previous research done in the field of Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation have shown to treat disorders ranging from insomnia, anxiety, cognitive dysfunction, depression, stress, etc. Implementation of CES to astronauts will not only provide a solution to prevent performance errors but provided a long range of benefits to the well being of astronauts’.