Neurostimulators are becoming popular for treating Parkinson’s, Essential Tremor, pain, and other neurological conditions. They typically involve a battery-powered implant resembling a pacemaker placed on the chest that has electrode leads attached reaching up to another part of the body, often the brain. There are a number of disadvantages with implantable batteries and issues related […]
Tag: Neurology
Prosthetic Hand With Five Individually Controlled Fingers Lets Amputee Play Piano
Most powered hand prostheses measure the electrical signals (electromyography) produced by muscles near the stump to detect when the user wants to activate the opening or closing of the fingers. While this has worked marginally well so far, this technology doesn’t have the resolution for intuitive individual finger control. Now researchers at Georgia Tech have […]
Prosthetic Hand With Five Individually Controlled Fingers Lets Amputee Play Piano
Most powered hand prostheses measure the electrical signals (electromyography) produced by muscles near the stump to detect when the user wants to activate the opening or closing of the fingers. While this has worked marginally well so far, this technology doesn’t have the resolution for intuitive individual finger control. Now researchers at Georgia Tech have […]
New EEG System Achieves Higher Signal Resolution Than Ever Before
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new electroencephalography (EEG) system capable of recording brain signals at an unprecedented spatial resolution. The so-called “super-Nyquist density” EEG was compared to four different conventional “Nyquist density” EEGs when tried on 14 volunteers. The new system was able to record a lot more data from the visual […]
Samsung Develops App to Allow Color Blind Owners to Enjoy Their New TVs
New TVs were once again one of the bestsellers during the Black Friday sales. But an estimated eight percent of people who might have purchased a new TV this week can’t fully enjoy its vibrant 4K Ultra HD, HDR, OLED, melt-your-eyeballs glory because of color blindness. However, if you purchased a Samsung TV, you may […]
High-Tech Mobile Stroke Units Treat Patients Sooner
A stroke is one of the most time-critical medical emergencies. If not treated quickly, a patient can quickly deteriorate as brain cells die from a lack of oxygen. Doctors aim to begin treating stroke patients within an hour from the onset of symptoms, something that is often difficult to do when relying on conventional ambulances. […]
RICOH MEG Magnetoencephalography System Wins FDA Clearance
Ricoh, a large Japanese industrial company, won FDA clearance for its RICOH MEG magnetoencephalography system. The device is able to detect electrical signals within the brain by measuring the magnetic fields produced as electric currents move within the brain. According to the company, the device was developed to provide “deeper measurement (hippocampus and hypothalamus), clearer signal […]
Amputees Move Robotic Arms by Power of Thought
Scientists at the University of Chicago have shown that it is possible to implant brain-computer interfaces and let amputees control robotic arms, even years after their amputations. Similar research has previously focused on paralyzed people and whether they can benefit from technology that lets them move external devices by simply willing and thinking of wanted […]
Carefully Controlled Light Pulses Can Trigger Neurons to Fire
Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a technique of using a flurry of very short light pulses of different wavelengths to control how mouse neurons fire. Eventually, the technique might be useful for influencing cells in the body that respond to light, such as those in the retina, to treat light-sensitive circadian or […]
Body Monitoring Sensors from Shimmer Help Researchers Get Science Done
The Med in Ireland conference that we recently had a chance to visit, featured Shimmer, a successful body-sensing firm out of Dublin. The company also has offices in Cambridge, MA and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They build a variety of modular sensing devices for clinical studies, product development, and anything else that would require to record […]
Neuropixel Probe Monitors Brain Activity Across Multiple Brain Regions
An international team of researchers has developed a silicon brain probe that can gather neuronal activity at an unprecedented resolution. The device, called Neuropixel, described in the latest version of Nature, is a thin needle with an unbelievable 960 electrodes that record brain signals. The resolution is at a single neuron level. Because at 10 […]
Virtual Reality System for Navigating Huge Brain Datasets
Researchers at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering and the University of Geneva have developed a virtual reality system for navigating through and manipulating huge volumes of brain-related data. Information obtained from brain studies can balloon into gigantic quantities that is difficult to visualize and analyze. The person piloting the system wears a now […]
First Electronic Device for Opioid Withdrawal Therapy Approved by FDA
The FDA has given a regulatory green light to the first device that reduces opioid withdrawal symptoms. The NSS-2 Bridge from Innovative Health Solutions, a Versailles, Indiana firm, is stuck to the skin behind the ear and relies on four electrodes that are attached around the ear. The electrodes are used to deliver electric current […]
Thync Relax Pro: A Medgadget Review
When life starts to get stressful, we often turn to things like a soothing cup of tea, deep breathing and meditation, or a dose of Xanax to help bring calm. One company we’ve covered in the past, Thync, based in Los Gatos, California, hopes to position itself as a smart, drug-free wearable device that can […]
New Brain Probe Maps Dopamine in Brain to Help Study Psychiatric Drugs and Diseases
Researchers at University of California, Berkeley have developed special sensors that provide a look at the location and concentration of neurotransmitter chemicals, such as dopamine, inside living brain tissue. The new capability should help scientists to study a variety of neurological conditions and the drugs that are used to treat them. The nano-scale sensors are made […]
trans-Tango, a Brain Network Mapping Technique to Help Understand Neuro Diseases
Researchers at Brown University have developed a practical new way of imaging the activity between individual neurons in the brain, providing scientists with a powerful tool to study neural diseases, their causes, and potential treatments. The technology has been trialed in fruit flies and has already resulted in previously unmapped neural circuits related to eating […]
AI Reads Brainwaves to Assess Preterm Brain Maturity
Researchers at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital have created the first AI that is capable of estimating the functional brain maturity of pre-term babies. The software interprets electroencephalography (EEG) measurements taken from preterm infants to make calculations about the brain’s functional maturity. Based on machine learning, the software calculates the brain maturity […]
Researchers Stick Microscopes Inside Mouse Brains to Watch Live Neuro Activity
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have developed a way of implanting an optical lens directly into the amygdala of a living mouse’s brain to watch the neural activity taking place. The lens is a thin glass rod that is pushed deep into the brain, while an imaging microscope connected to it lets the scientists […]
Scientists See Brain Rewiring Itself to Adjust to Advanced Prostheses
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) working with investigators in other institutions, managed to see, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), how the brain reorganizes itself after a person is treated with targeted motor and sensory reinnervation (TMSR). TMSR is a method of redirecting existing nerves on or near the amputee’s stump […]
UCLA Trials Ambulance Equipped with CT Scanner for Rapid Stroke Treatment
According to the AHA (American Heart Association), when it comes to stroke, it’s all about acting FAST (face, arms, speech, time). And while comprehensive stroke centers have gotten pretty good at triaging and imaging and treating patients, the time it takes for the ambulance to transport the patient to the hospital eats up precious minutes. […]