Brain stimulation

Scientists have uncovered an odd superpower triggered by tapping your finger to a beat – it may help you understand someone talking to you in a noisy place, like at a busy cafe. While it sounds a little woo-woo, there's emerging science behind it.

A recent clinical trial has shown that it's possible to safely and effectively treat depression at home using a brain stimulation device. That means patients can give themselves low-intensity impulses to see positive results with 30-minute sessions.

An innovative start-up is out to change how attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is managed, with non-invasive light electrical brain stimulation delivered by a headband worn for just 20 minutes a day that aims to improve poor executive function.

A head-mounted ultrasound device has now completed two human trials. One showed how the targeted sound waves could improve pain symptoms, while another revealed a marked improvement in depression symptoms after just one session.

If someone you know has gone through chemotherapy, you might be familiar with the side effect 'chemo brain.' Scientists have now demonstrated a simple way to protect brain cells from damage using flashing lights and sounds at a certain frequency.

Researchers found that applying a gentle electric current to the head during virtual reality training helped budding surgeons to more easily transfer the skills they’d learned to a real-life setting.

A new kind of high-frequency deep-brain stimulation has successfully stimulated neurons in the hippocampus, the region that forms, organizes and retrieves memories. This non-invasive, painless treatment is now being trialed on dementia patients.

A drug that treats excessive daytime sleepiness and obstructive sleep apnea could be repurposed to relieve debilitating symptoms of attention deficit hyperactive disorder, without the serious health risks that stimulants may hold for older adults.

Believe it or not, male sexual desire actually begins in the brain. Scientists have found the neural circuit that triggers mating behaviors and the ensuing pleasure and reward feedback in mice. They hope it can lead to new drugs to treat dysfunction.

An organic electrode that doesn’t require invasive surgery to implant and is resorbed by the body over time may be a novel way of using electrical stimulation to treat non-chronic conditions such as cancer, nerve injuries and pain.

Stanford scientists have found a biological mechanism behind severe depression, and treated it. Signals between two brain regions flow the wrong way in people with depression, but magnetic stimulation reverses them, drastically improving symptoms.

A new design for a deep brain stimulation implant could greatly improve the experience of living with these devices, by using integrated triboelectric generators to convert a user’s breathing movements into electricity.