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Genetically engineered proteins may be promising new tool for mapping brain cell activity

Scientists used fruit flies to show for the first time that a new class of genetically engineered proteins can be used to watch nerve cell electrical activity in live brains. The results, published in Cell, suggest these proteins may be a promising new tool for mapping brain cell activity in multiple animals and for studying how neurological disorders disrupt normal nerve cell signaling.

9 Aug 2013

One-third of patients with heart pumps develop infection at abdominal power connection site

Cardiac surgeons and cardiologists at the University of Maryland Heart Center are part of a multi-center clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of powering heart pumps through a skull-based connector behind the ear. Typically, these devices for patients with severe heart failure are energized through an electrical cord connected at an abdominal site, where potentially deadly infections can develop.

8 Aug 2013

Researchers identify new type of cell in brain that helps people to keep track of their relative location

Using direct human brain recordings, a research team from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA and Thomas Jefferson University has identified a new type of cell in the brain that helps people to keep track of their relative location while navigating an unfamiliar environment.

6 Aug 2013

Researchers reveal how the brain remains focused on long-term goals

Cambridge-- As anyone who has traveled with young children knows, maintaining focus on distant goals can be a challenge. A new study from MIT suggests how the brain achieves this task, and indicates that the neurotransmitter dopamine may signal the value of long-term rewards.

5 Aug 2013

Researchers create calcium-sensitive proteins that respond quickly to changes in neuron activity

Princeton University researchers have created "souped up" versions of the calcium-sensitive proteins that for the past decade or so have given scientists an unparalleled view and understanding of brain-cell communication.

26 Jul 2013

Real-time monitoring helps ease prosthetic leg pain

University of Washington engineers aim to ease this discomfort with research that could help build better sockets. They have developed a device that tracks how much a person's limb swells and shrinks when inside a prosthetic socket. The data could help doctors and patients predict how and when their limbs will swell, which could be used to build smarter sockets.

25 Jul 2013

Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies receives patent for Parkinson’s disease monitoring technology

Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies announced today they have received allowance of claims from the U.S. Patent Office for an application covering their system and method of stimulating the brain during sleep to treat movement disorder symptoms.

22 Jul 2013

Cochlear implants restore usable hearing to deaf patients

Cochlear implants, electrical prosthetic devices that stimulate inner ear neurons of individuals who have lost their cochlear sensory cells, restore usable hearing to deaf patients. Cochlear implant electrodes are placed in the fluid-filled scala tympani of the cochlea, at a significant distance from the spiral ganglion and even from the spiral ganglion dendrites.

22 Jul 2013

Researchers use EEG signals for artifact suppression and brain wave extraction

Electroencephalography is a test to measure the electrical activity of the brain generated by scalp surface after being picked up by metal electrodes and conductive media. Proper classification of electroencephalography data is the main task in electroencephalography based brain computer interface.

15 Jul 2013

UH Eye Institute to use Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System to treat patients with RP

University Hospitals Eye Institute will be one of the first medical centers in the United States to offer the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System.

28 Jun 2013

New method allows assessment of direct stimulation effects on electric activity of human brain

Neuroscientists at the University of Tübingen have become the first to record neuromagnetic activity in the millisecond-by-millisecond range while the brain of a human subject was under stimulation by electric current. Electric brain stimulation has successfully been used in the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders for many decades.

24 Jun 2013

New AACN Practice Alert outlines evidence-based protocols to improve effective use of clinical alarms

Clinical alarms designed to alert nurses to changes in their patients' conditions have become a continual barrage of noise that poses a significant threat to patient safety, according to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

21 Jun 2013

Microfluidic devices can trap and sort bacteria and viruses in food and water

A new process for making a three-dimensional microstructure that can be used in the analysis of cells could prove useful in counterterrorism measures and in water and food safety concerns.

20 Jun 2013

Researchers use fMRI to validate activity patterns in human and animal brains in resting state

Kick back and shut your eyes. Now stop thinking. You have just put your brain into what neuroscientists call its resting state. What the brain is doing when an individual is not focused on the outside world has become the focus of considerable research in recent years.

20 Jun 2013

New study tests vestibular prosthesis to help restore balance for people with Meniere's disease

Many disorders of the inner hear which affect both hearing and balance can be hugely debilitating and are currently largely incurable. Cochlear implants have been used for many years to replace lost hearing resulting from inner ear damage.

14 Jun 2013

New technology could improve communication and daily life of paralyzed person

Small electrodes placed on or inside the brain allow patients to interact with computers or control robotic limbs simply by thinking about how to execute those actions. This technology could improve communication and daily life for a person who is paralyzed or has lost the ability to speak from a stroke or neurodegenerative disease.

12 Jun 2013

Home treatment improves chronic constipation in children

Home treatment with a simple, battery-operated system that applies four sticky electrode patches to the mid-section allowed a group of children with the most difficult-to-treat, possibly congenital, constipation to reduce soiling and improve elimination, according to results presented today at the 11th World Congress of the International Neuromodulation Society.

12 Jun 2013

First consensus guidelines for use of neurostimulation in chronic pain

Recognizing that treatment of chronic pain can be confounding, the Neuromodulation Appropriateness Consensus Committee, an international group of more than 60 leading pain specialists, has created the first consensus guidelines for the use of neurostimulation in chronic pain.

10 Jun 2013

New noninvasive system allows people to control flying robot using only their mind

Researchers in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering have developed a new noninvasive system that allows people to control a flying robot using only their mind. The study goes far beyond fun and games and has the potential to help people who are paralyzed or have neurodegenerative diseases.

6 Jun 2013

Surgeon develops new way to perform deep brain stimulation

The surgeon who more than two decades ago pioneered deep brain stimulation surgery in the United States to treat people with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders has now developed a new way to perform the surgery - which allows for more accurate placement of the brain electrodes and likely is safer for patients.