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Brain implants may provide key to alleviating neurological conditions
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Implants that react to brain signals could help Parkinson’s SMART implants in the brains of people with neurological disorders could eventually help develop treatments for people with Parkinson’s disease, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. Last week, a team from Medtronic of Minneapolis, Minnesota, reported on their design for a neurostimulator at the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society meeting in Minneapolis. The devices use electrodes to deliver deep stimulation to specific parts of the brain. Neurostimulators are already approved to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder. But existing devices deliver stimulation on a set schedule, not in response to abnormal brain activity. The Medtronic researchers think a device that reacts to brain signals could be more effective, plus the battery would last longer, an important consideration for implantable devices. Tim Denison, a Medtronic engineer working on the device, says that the neurostimulator will initially be useful for studying brain signals as patients go about their day. Eventually, the data collected will show whether the sensors would be useful for detecting and preventing attacks.
MEDTRONIC
into a cosmic trashcan, remaining at the station until the vessel is brimming with ISS waste – whereupon it is jettisoned, deorbited and burned up. But a fourth, less wasteful, cargo option beckons. SpaceX, the civilian spaceflight firm backed by PayPal founder Elon Musk, has won a NASA contract to ship cargo to the ISS, running 12 resupply flights between 2012 and 2015. And the upper capsule of SpaceX’s new Dragon vessel, which resembles an Apollo spacecraft, is recoverable – via a parachute splashdown in the Pacific ocean. It too can dock via the robot arm. SpaceX’s programme is at an advanced stage. Last week, it –Robot arm at the ready– supplied NASA with the UHF radio system that will enable the the ozone layer’s chemistry. Dragon to dock with the ISS: it will “The HTV is just an amazing be taken up on the next flight of vehicle and it’s a pleasure to have the shuttle Atlantis. “This radio it in the supply fleet,” says Mike unit had to pass NASA’s strict Suffredini, NASA’s ISS programme ISS safety standards and reviews, manager. demonstrating our progress and But just what vehicles have laying the groundwork for Dragon the space agencies recruited for flights,” says SpaceX president this fleet? Until now, uncrewed Gwynne Shotwell. missions to space stations like the JAXA is also investigating now defunct Mir, and the ISS, have capsule reuse. “One of our been carried out by the veteran upgrade plans is to make HTV Russian craft, Progress. This is recoverable. It’s something we’re effectively an uncrewed version studying right now,” Miyake says. of a Soyuz capsule. Then just last HTV is scheduled for lift-off year, another option arrived when sometime between 10 September the European Space Agency and the end of the month, on successfully flew its own board the HII-B launch vehicle, which has never flown before – “Without a complex attitude, and the record of successful first rendezvous and rangerocket launches is poor. For control system, HTV is instance, the giant Ariane 5, which simpler than other craft” carries ESA’s ATV, failed to launch several times before the glitches uncrewed cargo carrier, the in the technology were finally Automated Transfer Vehicle, to ironed out. the ISS – carrying three times the A variant of JAXA’s workhorse cargo of a Progress vehicle. Both HII-A rocket, the HII-B has four Progress and ATV dock with the solid rocket boosters instead of Russian Zvezda module of the ISS. the HII-A’s two – and has two Now JAXA is adding a third main liquid-fuelled engines option with the HTV. This craft, instead of the HII-A’s one. however, docks with the American “This is indeed the HII-B’s Harmony module. first launch. But many of the The usual mode of operation components are already working for these cargo beasts is to deliver well on the HII-A,” says Miyake. their payloads and then morph “We have great confidence in it.” ■
Human trials are years away, but elsewhere, NeuroPace a start-up firm in Mountain View, California, is finishing clinical trials using its RNS smart implant device in 240 people with epilepsy, the results of which will be available in December, says Martha Morrell, chief medical officer at NeuroPace. An earlier feasibility study on 65 patients provided preliminary evidence that the devices did reduce seizures. The NeuroPace device is implanted within the skull where it monitors electrical activity via electrodes implanted deep in the brain. If it spots the “signature” of a seizure, it will deliver brief and mild electrical stimulation to suppress it. Mark George, a neurologist at the Medical University of South
“If it spots the signature of a seizure it will deliver mild electrical stimulation to suppress it” Carolina in Charleston, says heart pacemakers developed in a similar way, as researchers learned to make them detect and react to signals from the heart. “I think it’s absolutely inevitable that we’ll develop a smarter, more intelligent way to figure out how and when to stimulate,” George says. Kurt Kleiner ■
–Round the clock brain watch– 12 September 2009 | NewScientist | 21
Implants that react to brain signals could help Parkinson’s SMART implants in the brains of people with neurological disorders could eventually help develop treatments for people with Parkinson’s disease, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. Last week, a team from Medtronic of Minneapolis, Minnesota, reported on their design for a neurostimulator at the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society meeting in Minneapolis. The devices use electrodes to deliver deep stimulation to specific parts of the brain. Neurostimulators are already approved to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder. But existing devices deliver stimulation on a set schedule, not in response to abnormal brain activity. The Medtronic researchers think a device that reacts to brain signals could be more effective, plus the battery would last longer, an important consideration for implantable devices. Tim Denison, a Medtronic engineer working on the device, says that the neurostimulator will initially be useful for studying brain signals as patients go about their day. Eventually, the data collected will show whether the sensors would be useful for detecting and preventing attacks.
MEDTRONIC
into a cosmic trashcan, remaining at the station until the vessel is brimming with ISS waste – whereupon it is jettisoned, deorbited and burned up. But a fourth, less wasteful, cargo option beckons. SpaceX, the civilian spaceflight firm backed by PayPal founder Elon Musk, has won a NASA contract to ship cargo to the ISS, running 12 resupply flights between 2012 and 2015. And the upper capsule of SpaceX’s new Dragon vessel, which resembles an Apollo spacecraft, is recoverable – via a parachute splashdown in the Pacific ocean. It too can dock via the robot arm. SpaceX’s programme is at an advanced stage. Last week, it –Robot arm at the ready– supplied NASA with the UHF radio system that will enable the the ozone layer’s chemistry. Dragon to dock with the ISS: it will “The HTV is just an amazing be taken up on the next flight of vehicle and it’s a pleasure to have the shuttle Atlantis. “This radio it in the supply fleet,” says Mike unit had to pass NASA’s strict Suffredini, NASA’s ISS programme ISS safety standards and reviews, manager. demonstrating our progress and But just what vehicles have laying the groundwork for Dragon the space agencies recruited for flights,” says SpaceX president this fleet? Until now, uncrewed Gwynne Shotwell. missions to space stations like the JAXA is also investigating now defunct Mir, and the ISS, have capsule reuse. “One of our been carried out by the veteran upgrade plans is to make HTV Russian craft, Progress. This is recoverable. It’s something we’re effectively an uncrewed version studying right now,” Miyake says. of a Soyuz capsule. Then just last HTV is scheduled for lift-off year, another option arrived when sometime between 10 September the European Space Agency and the end of the month, on successfully flew its own board the HII-B launch vehicle, which has never flown before – “Without a complex attitude, and the record of successful first rendezvous and rangerocket launches is poor. For control system, HTV is instance, the giant Ariane 5, which simpler than other craft” carries ESA’s ATV, failed to launch several times before the glitches uncrewed cargo carrier, the in the technology were finally Automated Transfer Vehicle, to ironed out. the ISS – carrying three times the A variant of JAXA’s workhorse cargo of a Progress vehicle. Both HII-A rocket, the HII-B has four Progress and ATV dock with the solid rocket boosters instead of Russian Zvezda module of the ISS. the HII-A’s two – and has two Now JAXA is adding a third main liquid-fuelled engines option with the HTV. This craft, instead of the HII-A’s one. however, docks with the American “This is indeed the HII-B’s Harmony module. first launch. But many of the The usual mode of operation components are already working for these cargo beasts is to deliver well on the HII-A,” says Miyake. their payloads and then morph “We have great confidence in it.” ■
Human trials are years away, but elsewhere, NeuroPace a start-up firm in Mountain View, California, is finishing clinical trials using its RNS smart implant device in 240 people with epilepsy, the results of which will be available in December, says Martha Morrell, chief medical officer at NeuroPace. An earlier feasibility study on 65 patients provided preliminary evidence that the devices did reduce seizures. The NeuroPace device is implanted within the skull where it monitors electrical activity via electrodes implanted deep in the brain. If it spots the “signature” of a seizure, it will deliver brief and mild electrical stimulation to suppress it. Mark George, a neurologist at the Medical University of South
“If it spots the signature of a seizure it will deliver mild electrical stimulation to suppress it” Carolina in Charleston, says heart pacemakers developed in a similar way, as researchers learned to make them detect and react to signals from the heart. “I think it’s absolutely inevitable that we’ll develop a smarter, more intelligent way to figure out how and when to stimulate,” George says. Kurt Kleiner ■
–Round the clock brain watch– 12 September 2009 | NewScientist | 21