Bionic Vision Technologies, a firm based in Australia, has announced that its bionic eye system has been used to restore a “sense of sight” to four completely blind people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa. The findings from the study, which was performed at Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, were presented at the (Read more...)
Tag: Neurology
Tackling Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Using Machine Learning: Interview with IQuity CEO, Dr. Chase Spurlock
Losing one’s memories, and therefore one’s identity, must be a terrifying experience. With a global estimate of almost 50 million people living with dementia, predicted to rise to more than 130 million by 2050, the burden of Alzheimer’s and dementia are indisputable. While there are still no approved drugs for the treatment of Alz (Read more...)
Scientists Give Humans Ability to Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field
Birds and many other animals are able to perceive the Earth’s magnetic field, an ability that allows them to navigate around the world with magical ease. Scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a research center in Dresden, Germany, have developed an electronic skin that can give humans the same capability. The new tec (Read more...)
Scientists Give Humans Ability to Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field
Birds and many other animals are able to perceive the Earth’s magnetic field, an ability that allows them to navigate around the world with magical ease. Scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a research center in Dresden, Germany, have developed an electronic skin that can give humans the same capability. The new tec (Read more...)
MRI Used to Study How Beatboxers Make Sounds
Beatboxers can make some pretty wild sounds, from deep bass thumps to snare drum cracks. How they do it is very much a mystery because the vocal chords and everything around them is hidden behind layers of tissue. Researchers at University of Southern California are using an MRI scanner to study this matter with the help […]
Nighthawk Night Time Seizure Detection Device
A collaboration between teams of Dutch scientists has developed a monitoring and alert device designed to warn epilepsy sufferers of night time seizures. Currently, there are no accurate technologies in existence to wake people up before a seizure kicks in, which can sometimes even lead to deaths. The new Nighthawk device is an upper arm […]
(Read more...)Nighthawk Night Time Seizure Detection Device
A collaboration between teams of Dutch scientists has developed a monitoring and alert device designed to warn epilepsy sufferers of night time seizures. Currently, there are no accurate technologies in existence to wake people up before a seizure kicks in, which can sometimes even lead to deaths. The new Nighthawk device is an upper arm […]
(Read more...)Robotic Stroke Rehab Orthosis with Neuro-Muscular Stimulation to Speed Recovery at Home
Stroke rehab is typically a slow and meticulous process that requires a good deal of mental stamina and lots of help from professionals. Personally delivered rehab from a specialist is expensive, but if one has the staying power there’s new technology coming from Hong Kong Polytechnic University that lets people rehabilitate at home. The (Read more...)
Non-Invasive Monitor for Hydrocephalus Shunt Malfunctions
At Northwestern University a new wearable shunt monitor has been developed that may revolutionize how people with hydrocephalus are cared for. Currently, implanted shunts are typically used to drain cerebrospinal fluid into the abdomen, preventing it from building up in the brain. Though they’re very effective, they tend to clog up and c (Read more...)
Paralyzed People Walk Again, Even Without Neurostimulation
The word “paralysis” is starting to lose its gloomy permanence, as researchers at top-end institutions around the world have been getting some people back on their legs who were previously thought to have to spend the rest of their lives in wheelchairs. Well targeted electrical nerve stimulation, coupled with specialized rehab training, (Read more...)
Microchip for Growing and Studying 3D Brain Mimics
Over the past few years, neuroscientists have been able to grow ever larger and more complex spheroid cultures and organoids that replicate the structure and functionality of brain tissue. While these models are significantly better at mimicking parts of the brain compared to 2D cultures, they are much more challenging to study because it’s h (Read more...)
MRI Implant to Detect Light and Electric Fields Inside Brain
Monitoring certain kinds of processes happening inside the brain can be pretty easy or exceedingly difficult. EEG, for example, provides a pretty good look into the brain using relatively simple technology, while measuring light emitted by luminescent proteins within the brain is incredibly challenging. Now researchers at MIT are adapting MRI techn (Read more...)
Near-Infrared Tech for Minimally Invasive Brain Monitoring: Interview with Philippe Dro, CEO of Luciole Medical
Luciole Medical, a medtech company based in Switzerland, has developed near-infrared sensors that can assess levels of tissue oxygenation as well as cerebral blood flow by measuring oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin. The sensors include a skin patch, which measures brain blood flow and oxygen saturation in patients undergoing surgery, and a mi (Read more...)
Nerve-on-a-Chip to Improve Functionality of Neuroprosthetic Devices
Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have created a special device to be able to stimulate and record signals from and to peripheral nerve fibers on a specialty chip. The device can be used to repeatedly stimulate and record the returning electric activity with high resolution, p (Read more...)
MRI Reveals How Neurostimulation Can Treat GI Disorder
Though it may come as a surprise to some, there are a number of gastrointestinal conditions that can be treated using electrical nerve stimulation. The stomach, for example, can be motivated to empty by neurostimulating the vagus nerve to treat gastroparesis in patients with diabetic autonomic neuropathy and others. While this has been known for [& (Read more...)
Quell Non-Medication Solution for Chronic Pain: Interview with CEO Shai Gozani
Chronic pain affects 100 million Americans and is the most common cause of long-term disability. Long-term use of pain medications has significant risks, and chronic pain is a major contributor to opioid overuse. NeuroMetrix hopes to offer effective, non-medication solutions for chronic pain. The Waltham, MA-based company has developed the Que (Read more...)
Researchers Use Novel Machine Learning Strategy to Accelerate Brain-Computer Interface Training
Brain-computer interfaces are typically systems which measure neural activity and convert it into artificial output. These systems have shown great potential for assisted movement in patients with motor impairments. The interfaces typically work by directing the patient to think about making a movement and allowing the system to repeatedly record t (Read more...)
Vagus Nerve Stimulation to Reduce Post Surgical Brain Inflammation
Following a difficult surgery, some patients end up experiencing cognitive decline and delirium, which seems to arise from inflammatory changes in the brain, that are still poorly understood. This inflammation is difficult to control in a targeted way, but researchers at Duke University seem to have discovered that electrical nerve stimulation may (Read more...)
Bucknell Students Design Device to Evaluate Patients’ Ability to Drive
In America and many other countries, driving is a part of life without which many things are impossible to do. Following injuries to the legs and feet, patients hope to recover their ability to drive more than just about anything else. The problem is that physicians don’t have objective methods to judge how well someone […]
Biodegradable Implant Stimulates Injured Nerves to Speed Up Healing
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine and Northwestern University created an implant to deliver electric impulses to damaged nerves, helping to heal them, and that eventually biodegrades and leaves the body. It’s about the size of a U.S. quarter coin and operates for about two weeks before losing power and breaking up into mi (Read more...)