Implants May Improve Therapy For Neurological Disorders

ericjones12398 writes "Breakthrough new research out of Massachusetts General Hospital shows that the use of magnetic field stimulation from microscopic devices implanted into the brain may be able to boost brain activity and alleviate symptoms of several devastating neurodegenerative conditions. Researchers leveraged the use of magnetic stimulation, which has been used for years to diagnose and treat neurological disorders. However, transcranial magnetic stimulation often generates fields by hand-held coils outside the skull, which ends up activating undesired parts of the brain, and makes delivery specificity to certain parts of the brain difficult."

I, for one welcome our nano-lobotomy overlords

[siddesu]

and predict that in another decade those of us who don't get the implants will be looking at those poor souls who got em with the feeling we get today when looking at the orbitoclast. No, doctor, if I go insane, please don't put your wires in my brain.

Not all brain cells die at once

[Frans Faase]

With neuro-degenrative disorders (dementia) it is not the case that all brain cells die at once. Even with people who have progressed far, still have brain with living brain cells. The brain cells that are left can form new connections. Maybe the magnetic stimulation can improve the communication between the brain cells that are left. In the past decades several medicines have developed that stimulate the production of certain neurotransmitters with the same effect. However, most of these medicines only work with a few people and the effect is mostly not very dramatic. The problem is that all these things do not cure or even halt the neuro-degenerative process. It might be a breakthrough in the research but it is definitely not a breakthrough in the cure of such disorders. But any method that can elevate the simptoms is nevertheless important because for the suffers of these diseases and their caretakers.