Brain stimulation

It’s unsurprising but unfortunate that as we get older, our capacity to learn new skills diminishes. A new study by researchers at EPFL has found that non-invasive electrical brain stimulation can help older adults learn new motor skills much faster.

Researchers at Rice University have shown how they can hack the brains of fruit flies to make them remote controlled. The flies performed a specific action within a second of a command being sent to certain neurons in their brain.

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID) often experience involuntary movements, which disrupt their ability to perform many tasks. A new device could help reduce those movements, by buzzing its wearer in the wrist.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have identified a specific set of neurons in the brainstem that, when stimulated by electric pulses, can help improve the mobility of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

A fascinating new study explores how it ultrasound could one day be used to tackle psychiatric disorders, by modulating the way the brains of monkeys connect rewards and outcomes with specific events or choices.

An incredible proof-of-concept study has demonstrated how a brain implant can treat severe depression using electrical stimulation. The implant tracks neural activity for patterns of depression and zaps a key region in real-time to disrupt the cycle.

New research is shedding light on how specifically targeted pulses of magnetic stimulation to the brain can improve episodic memory. The work found inhibiting activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex enhances memory formation.

Researchers have developed a brain implant designed to detect pain sensations in real-time and deliver bursts of pain-relieving stimulation. The device is still experimental but a proof of concept study shows it working effectively in rodent models.

A novel wearable that stimulates the olfactory system using electrical pulses has been proposed as a way to prevent or slow dementia-related neurodegeneration. A dysfunctional sense of smell is suspected to be one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s.

New data reporting the long-term effects of deep brain stimulation on early-stage Parkinson’s patients has found the treatment significantly slows the progression of the disease. A large Phase 3 trial is now underway to verify these findings.

The brain is hard to treat – medications have side effects and surgery is dangerous and invasive. But now, researchers have shown how ultrasound can be used to affect specific regions of the brain, and even influence behavior in monkeys.

Stanford researchers optimized an FDA-approved form of non-invasive magnetic brain stimulation to better treat treatment-resistant depression. A preliminary study achieved a 90-percent remission rate, with larger trials underway.