LivaNova won European CE Mark clearance for its SenTiva generator and accompanying Programming System for treatment of epilepsy in patients that don’t respond well to drugs. It is able to detect the onset of certain seizures and deliver extra stimulation to help to avoid or lessen the impact of the seizure. The same system received FDA approval last […]
Tag: Neurology
Augmented Reality App to Help Parkinson’s Patients Improve Their Walk
Bioengineering students at Rice University have developed a smartphone app that may help people with Parkinson’s disease to improve their walking gait. These patients are combating a common phenomenon known as freezing, in which the legs take random pauses contrary to how the brain wishes them to move. Because previous studies demonstrated that regular, repeating […]
Implanted Brain Prosthesis Helps to Retain New Memories
Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and stroke, as well traumatic brain injuries, can do severe damage to patients’ memory system in the brain. Anyone taking care of Alzheimer’s sufferers, for example, knows well the importance of memory to a person’s sense of self and overall well-being. Hope is on the horizon, though, as researchers at Wake […]
Cerebrotech Visor Can Rapidly Detect Severe Stroke with 92% Accuracy
A visor that clinicians or paramedics can place on patients suspected of having a stroke has demonstrated 92% accuracy in helping to diagnose severe cases of the condition. The device can provide a diagnosis within seconds, and works by sending low-energy radio waves through the brain. Rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke is vital for […]
IrisVision for Low Vision: Interview with Ammad Khan, CEO and Frank Werblin, Chief Scientist and Inventor
IrisVision, a medtech company based in California, have developed a low-cost visual aid system for people with low vision. The system currently harnesses the power of a Samsung Galaxy smartphone mounted in a Samsung Gear VR headset. The phone captures the scene using the smartphone’s camera, then remaps the scene to enhance its visibility for […]
Ultra-Thin Endoscope to Peer at Neural Activity Deep Inside Brain
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, engineers have created an endoscope that’s about as thin as human hair, featuring an optical fiber only 125 microns in diameter. It’s so small that it can be inserted deeper than ever before into the brains of living mice to see individual in situ neurons. While similar endoscopes have existed […]
Wearable, High Resolution Magnetoencephalograph Allows Studies in Moving Subjects
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) allows researchers and clinicians to see the electrical activity within the brain. When a neuron fires and sends electric current down the axon, the current generates a tiny magnetic field. Because the fields are so weak, special magnetometers called SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) are used for detection. They’re large, confining, and require the patient […]
Brain Stethoscope Turns Brain Waves to Sound to Diagnose Silent Seizures
The brain produces what looks like a messy jumble of waves (EEG) that are hard for anyone without special training to make sense of. Researchers at Stanford are overcoming that by turning all those brain waves into sound waves, and in the process allowing clinicians who are not EEG specialists to easily detect silent seizures. […]
Rendering Brain Tissue Transparent with OPTIclear to Unlock Secrets of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
Researchers from Imperial College London and The University of Hong Kong have published results in Nature Communications of a revolutionary process that renders human brain tissue transparent and allows the complex network of neurons to be mapped. This technique of clearing alters brain tissue’s optical properties without impacting the cell structure, allowing neurons to be […]
Artificial Kinesthetic Feedback Improves Control of Prosthetic Devices
Unlike mechanical machines, our bodies perform seemingly simple tasks by relying on extremely complicated neurological processes. Even something as simple as moving one’s hand involves high-precision feedback loops that allow the brain to constantly monitor and adjust the hand’s motion. Because people using prostheses can’t feel where their devices are in relation to their bodies, […]
Brains of People Using Prostheses Think of Their Devices as Real Hands
Building highly capable prosthetic devices of the future will have to involve getting the brain to better recognize an artificial appendage as its own. This finding has materialized thanks to an interesting study performed by researchers at University College London. The researchers recruited healthy volunteers and those with one missing hand, including people that were […]
Artificial Photoreceptors Return Vision to Blind Mice
Blindness in many people is caused by diseased rod and cone cells within the retina that are responsible for turning light into electric signals. If these photoreceptor cells don’t function correctly, even an otherwise perfectly healthy eye won’t produce quality vision. There are technologies out there that bypass photoreceptors entirely, but that involves bulky technology […]
Soft Electronics for Long Term Neural Monitoring and Recording
Scientists at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, Linköping University in Sweden, and Columbia and NYU in New York City, have developed a highly flexible soft electronic neural interface probe that can be stretched to twice its original length. The device is suitable for long-term neural recording, and could help clinicians to diagnose and monitor neurological conditions […]
Philips Ingenia Elition 3T MRI Scanner Unveiled
Philips has unveiled a new 3 Tesla MRI scanner, the Ingenia Elition. The device was designed to help speed up all sorts of exams without sacrificing image quality, in certain cases doing so in half the time of competing devices. The system features the firm’s dStream digital broadband tech, as well as Compressed SENSE and 3D […]
Carbon Nanotubes Spun Into Yarn Work to Stimulate Neurons Inside Brain
An amazing possibility for the field of neurology is being able to read signals from and stimulate individual nerves in living animals and humans, and for long periods of time. Studies about the brain could be phenomenally productive using such technology and therapies for all kinds of condition would be forthcoming. But current tungsten-based hard needles […]
Exclusive Interview with Andy Nie of GYENNO on Interventions for Parkinson’s
Using innovative technology similar to that used for the more widely known Parkinson’s spoon, GYENNO Technologies, a Chinese firm, has developed new Gait Aid Equipment to help the 60% of later-stage Parkinson’s patients who experience “gait freeze” and are at risk for falls. The system’s smart sensors detect when the problem may occur and provide audio, […]
Tiny Light-Activated Gold-Covered Nanowires Can Make Neurons Fire
Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed light-activated nanowires that can stimulate neurons to fire when they are exposed to light. The researchers hope that the nanowires could help in understanding complex brain circuitry, and they may also be useful in treating brain disorders. Optogenetics, which involves genetically modifying neurons so that they are […]
Brain Organoids Show Formation of Brain Wrinkles
Our regular readers might have noted that the development of organ-on-a-chip devices has become a popular research trend. Tiny living parts of real human organs can be sustained for long periods of time inside of specially designed chambers that feed the organoids and provide researchers a window to examine them under a microscope. All sorts […]
Stick-On Flexible Electronics to Track Stroke Recovery
Electronics that keep working even when repeatedly stretched and flexed have improved significantly in the last few years to the point that now they’re finally being introduced into real wearable medical devices. At Northwestern University, John Rogers, the scientist responsible for many achievements in the field of flexible electronics (see flashbacks below), has developed new […]
Upconversion Nanoparticles Deliver Light Deep Into Brain to Power Optogenetic Therapies
Optogenetics is a powerful method developed over the past few years that lets scientists use light to activate specific genetically modified neurons within the brain. This technology still has a lot of time left in the lab before it can help to address human diseases, but that reality may be a bit closer thanks to […]