Brain Stimulation News and Research

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Neuroscientists identify the brain network system that causes people to slip when anxious

As musicians, figure skaters and anyone who takes a driving test will know, the anxiety of being watched can have a disastrous effect on your performance. Now neuroscientists at the University of Sussex's Sackler Centre and Brighton and Sussex Medical School have identified the brain network system that causes us to stumble and stall just when we least want to.

20 Jan 2016

NUS researchers develop EsoGlove that helps patients restore hand functions

Patients who have lost their hand functions due to injuries or nerve-related conditions, such as stroke and muscular dystrophy, now have a chance of restoring their hand movements by using a new lightweight and smart rehabilitation device called EsoGlove developed by a research team from the National University of Singapore.

12 Jan 2016

Central thalamus tunes the brain to different states of activity and arousal

Scientists showed that they could alter brain activity of rats and either wake them up or put them in an unconscious state by changing the firing rates of neurons in the central thalamus, a region known to regulate arousal.

18 Dec 2015

Older adults experience problems in processing multisensory information

Much like trying to watch a video with the audio out of synch, older adults may have difficulty combining the stimuli they see and hear, and it could have implications for rapid decision-making tasks such as driving, according to new research.

16 Dec 2015

Specific deep-brain circuit's firing frequency can alter forebrain activity, alertness levels

Adjusting a specific deep-brain circuit's firing frequency immediately and dramatically alters rats' forebrain activity and alertness levels, Stanford University School of Medicine investigators have shown.

11 Dec 2015

Korean MFDS approves InSightec's Exablate Neuro system to treat movement, pain and behavioral disorders

Elbit Imaging Ltd. announced today that it was informed by InSightec Ltd., that the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has approved its Exablate Neuro system to treat movement, pain and behavioral disorders.

30 Nov 2015

Dopamine measurements provides information crucial for human choice

Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have reported measurements of dopamine release with unprecedented temporal precision in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease. The measurements, collected during brain surgery as the conscious patients played an investment game, demonstrate how rapid dopamine release encodes information crucial for human choice.

24 Nov 2015

Penn Medicine's Gordon Baltuch performs 1,000th deep brain stimulation procedure

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) improves many of the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) and is a life-alerting surgery for many patients. Penn Medicine's Gordon Baltuch, MD, a professor of Neurosurgery and director of the Penn Center for Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery, is one of the most prolific DBS surgeons in the world, having recently performed his 1,000th procedure, marking an important milestone for Baltuch and Penn Medicine.

31 Oct 2015

Doctors use MR-guided focused ultrasound to treat essential tremor

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is one of six locations nationally - and the only one in the Midwest - studying the safety and effectiveness of a promising new technology using MR-guided focused ultrasound to treat patients suffering from essential tremor as part of a multi-center FDA trial.

18 Oct 2015

SynAgile announces positive results from Phase 2a trial of continuous intraoral LD/CD therapy

SynAgile Corporation, a privately held pharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes drug delivery systems using its proprietary OraFuse intraoral technology platform, today announced positive results from a proof-of-concept, Phase 2a, open-label clinical trial of continuous intraoral administration of levodopa-carbidopa (LD/CD).

8 Oct 2015

Researchers use brain scans to reveal mechanisms behind cognitive control of thoughts

How does the brain determine which direction to let its thoughts fly? Looking for the mechanisms behind cognitive control of thought, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, University of California and United States Army Research Laboratory have used brain scans to shed new light on this question.

7 Oct 2015

Mayo Clinic researchers awarded NIH grant to develop intelligent devices to track and treat epilepsy

Researchers at Mayo Clinic were awarded a $6.8 million, five-year federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop intelligent devices to track and treat abnormal brain activity in people with epilepsy. The grant, part of a presidential initiative aimed at revolutionizing the understanding of the human brain, is called Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies or the BRAIN Initiative.

7 Oct 2015

Researchers find potential new way to target brain cells affected by Parkinson's disease

Researchers from Imperial College London and Newcastle University believe they have found a potential new way to target cells of the brain affected by Parkinson's disease.

23 Sep 2015

Study shows external brain stimulation temporarily improves motor symptoms in Parkinson's patients

People with Parkinson's disease (PD) tend to slow down and decrease the intensity of their movements even though many retain the ability to move more quickly and forcefully.

10 Sep 2015

Studies suggests that insular cortex may hold key to treating addiction

A pair of studies suggests that a region of the brain - called the insular cortex - may hold the key to treating addiction. Scientists have come to this conclusion after finding that smokers who suffered a stroke in the insular cortex were far more likely to quit smoking and experience fewer and less severe withdrawal symptoms than those with strokes in other parts of the brain.

8 Sep 2015

University of Maryland Medicine offers MRI-guided focused ultrasound treatment to Parkinson's patients

University of Maryland Medicine (the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine) and its Center for Metabolic Imaging and Image-Guided Therapeutics (CMIT) has begun to use MRI-guided focused ultrasound on a deep structure within the brain related to Parkinson's disease - the globus pallidus.

2 Sep 2015

Newly discovered prion causes Multiple System Atrophy

Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a neurodegenerative disorder with similarities to Parkinson's disease, is caused by a newly discovered type of prion, akin to the misfolded proteins involved in incurable progressive brain diseases such Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), according to two new research papers led by scientists at UC San Francisco.

1 Sep 2015

Study shows food craving may be hard-wired into the brain of overweight patients

An international group of researchers have found that food craving activates different brain networks between obese and normal weight patients.

31 Aug 2015

September tip sheet from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

A computer algorithm did a better job than doctors at documenting "red flag" symptoms among patients with gastrointestinal disorders, a Cedars-Sinai study has found, underscoring the potential of the technology to improve patient care.

29 Aug 2015

FDA approves MagVenture MagVita TMS Therapy system for treatment of Major Depressive Disorder

On July 31, 2015 the US Food and Drug Administration cleared the MagVita TMS Therapy system for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder in adult patients who have failed to receive satisfactory improvement from prior antidepressant medication in the current episode.

28 Aug 2015