Science supports unlimited mental and physical applications and brain research exemplifies this. Uniting the potential of modern technology scientists are approaching neurological studies in revolutionary ways.
Some of these include…
Deep Brain Stimulation
Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have treated patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder by inserting a pacemaker in the chest that shoots electrical pulses to the brain. To the doctors’ surprise, two-thirds of the patients in a small trial scored much higher on memory tests after the treatment.
Mind Over Matter
At Brown University, a small number of paralysed patients have had chips implanted in their brains that detect neural signals. The chips are wired to computers programmed to carry out certain tasks the patients think about performing. After training on this system, some patients were able to move a cursor on the computer screen simply by thinking about doing so.
Memory Chips
Doctors treating stroke patients who suffer from memory loss would like to replace damaged brain tissue with semiconductors. Working with rats, a team of scientists led by the University of Southern California’s Theodore W. Berger learned how neurons responsible for memory react to varying patterns of electrical stimulation.
They’ve turned those reactions into equations on chips, which will soon be implanted in rats hippocampus. The chips receive signals from one set of healthy brain cells, process them digitally, and pass them along to other healthy cells-taking over the function of damaged tissue. One day, chips might boost memory capacity in healthy brains as well.
Herding Neurons
At the farthest reaches of brain research, scientists are learning to turn individual neurons on and off at will, raising hopes for quelling disturbing events in the mind and promoting useful ones. Edward Boyden, professor of neuroengineering at MIT, uses coloured light on genetically engineered brain cells in mice. When exposed to a fast pulse of blue light, the neurons in the brain switch on; a yellow flash turns them off.
Medical applications might include treating Parkinson’s tremors or epileptic fits by switching off swaths of diseased tissue. But the technique also could let researchers pinpoint and study those sets of neurons that control cognitive functions such as decision-making. The end result could be the ability to identify, switch on, and coordinate whole networks of neurons to enhance specific cognitive skills.
