Neurology
Regaining Lost Brain Function
April 23, 2013 12:00 am | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | News | CommentsHow do you make an electronic brain prosthesis that could restore a person’s ability to form long-term memories? Recent experiments by Theodore Berger and his colleagues, including Sam Deadwyler at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and researchers at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, have begun to describe how it might be done.
Meeting the FDA’s Mandates for Unique Device Identification
April 22, 2013 2:22 pm | by Hiroshi Ono, Group Product Manager, Roland DGA Corp. | Roland DGA Corporation | Articles | CommentsThe FDA’s UDI rule is on its way and will impact virtually everyone in the industry in one way or another. While the rule has its benefits, getting to compliance will not be achieved overnight. This article provides an overview of the direct part marking technologies required to comply with the UDI rule and offers a solution that addresses the shortcomings of several other technologies.
Healthcare's First Direct Contracting Market Launches Today; Will Offer Mutually Beneficial Approach for Hospitals and Suppliers
April 22, 2013 9:00 am | by PR Newswire | News | CommentsIRVING, Texas, April 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today aptitude announced the launch of the healthcare industry's first online direct contracting market, a one-stop destination designed to complement a hospital's existing contracting model or provide an alternative for those looking...
element14 Offers Engineers a Potentially Lifesaving Challenge
April 19, 2013 1:47 pm | by element14 | News | CommentsEngineers on the element14 Community are being invited to develop an intelligent solution for people living with cognitive impairments and other long term conditions that could change their lives. Project Nocturne hopes to find a reliable solution that will alert a relative or carer if their loved one is not safely in bed at night or fails to get up in the morning.
Samsung Demos a Tablet Controlled by Your Brain
April 19, 2013 12:00 am | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | News | CommentsAn easy-to-use EEG cap could expand the number of ways to interact with your mobile devices. One day, we may be able to check e-mail or call a friend without ever touching a screen or even speaking to a disembodied helper. Samsung is researching how to bring mind control to its mobile devices with the hope of developing ways for people with mobility impairments to connect to the world.
Neuralstem CEO, Richard Garr, To Participate In Traumatic Brain Injury Panel At BIO International Convention
April 18, 2013 9:15 am | by PR Newswire | News | CommentsROCKVILLE, Md., April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE MKT: CUR) announced that CEO and President, Richard Garr, will take part in a comprehensive Bio Maryland panel, introduced by Lt. Governor, Anthony Brown, on Maryland's leadership in traumatic brain injury...
Results of Pediatric Clinical Trial of External Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of ADHD
April 18, 2013 3:01 am | by PR Newswire | News | CommentsLOS ANGELES, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- NeuroSigma, Inc., a California-based medical device company, today announced that the results of the first-ever pediatric clinical trial of external Trigeminal Nerve stimulation (eTNS™) for the treatment of attention-deficit...
Stimulating the Brain Blunts Cigarette Craving
April 16, 2013 10:24 am | by Elsevier | News | CommentsCigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths globally. Unfortunately smoking cessation is difficult, with more than 90% of attempts to quit resulting in relapse. There are a growing number of available methods that can be tried in the effort to reduce smoking, including medications, behavioral therapies, hypnosis, and even acupuncture.
Boston Scientific acquires, launches fiXate suturing system
April 15, 2013 2:41 pm | by Mass Device | News | CommentsMedical device maker Boston Scientific acquired the fiXate tissue band from Anulex Technologies, launching the suturing system right away. The fiXate device is a semi-automatic suturing system designed to secure spinal cord stimulator leads and pain pump catheters, touting deployment in under 1 minute in bench testing, according to a press release.
Interview with BRAIN Project Pioneer: Miyoung Chun
April 15, 2013 12:00 am | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | News | CommentsThe trickiest thing about the brain mapping project might be that we don’t even know what we’re trying to learn. Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) project, which President Obama announced in his State of the Union address in February, will be a decade-long effort to understand the nature of thought.
Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) announce the formation of American Board of Brain Mapping, its 2013 award recipients and its Brain Mapping Day at the US Congress
April 12, 2013 3:16 pm | by Bio-Medicine.Org | News | CommentsLOS ANGELES , April 12, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- President Obama said in his April 2 nd speech "We have been a nation of dreamers and risk-takers; people who see what nobody else sees sooner than anybody else sees it. We do innovation better than anybody else -- and that makes our economy stronger. When we invest in the best ideas before anybody else does, our business...
Boston Scientific Launches Precision Spectra™ Spinal Cord Stimulator System In The United States
April 12, 2013 9:03 am | by PR Newswire | News | CommentsNATICK, Mass., April 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) has received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is beginning a limited launch of the Precision Spectra Spinal Cord Stimulator (SCS) System. The Precision Spectra System is the...
Wireless Micro LEDs Control Mouse Behavior
April 11, 2013 3:08 pm | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | News | CommentsA microscopic light-emitting diode device that controls the activity of neurons has given researchers wireless control over animal behavior. The tiny device, tested in mice, causes less damage than other methods used to deliver light into the brain, report researchers in Thursday’s issue of Science, and it does not tether mice to a light source, enabling scientists to study behaviors more naturally than is normally possible.
Medtronic Launches yet Another Back Pain Neurostim Study
April 11, 2013 2:45 pm | by Mass Device | News | CommentsMedtech titan Medtronic enrolled the initial patients in its SubQStim II pivotal clinical trial, evaluating the use of peripheral nerve stimulation in treatment of chronic back pain. The new study is the latest in a handful of neurostimulation trials launched by the medical device giant as it continues to battle rivals in the market for neurostimulation systems that treat chronic pain.
First Objective Measure of Pain Discovered in Brain Scan Patterns
April 11, 2013 11:04 am | by University of Colorado at Boulder | News | CommentsFor the first time, scientists have been able to predict how much pain people are feeling by looking at images of their brains, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The findings, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, may lead to the development of reliable methods doctors can use to objectively quantify a patient's pain.
Restoring Paretic Hand Function via an Artificial Neural Connection Bridging Spinal Cord Injury
April 11, 2013 10:54 am | by National Institute for Physiological Sciences | News | CommentsFunctional loss of limb control in individuals with spinal cord injury or stroke can be caused by interruption of the neural pathways between brain and spinal cord, although the neural circuits located above and below the lesion remain functional. An artificial neural connection that bridges the lost pathway and connects brain to spinal circuits has potential to ameliorate the functional loss.
Scientists Create Phantom Sensations in Non-Amputees
April 11, 2013 10:53 am | by Karolinska Institutet | News | CommentsThe sensation of having a physical body is not as self-evident as one might think. Almost everyone who has had an arm or leg amputated experiences a phantom limb: a vivid sensation that the missing limb is still present. A new study by neuroscientists at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that it is possible to evoke the illusion of having a phantom hand in non-amputated individuals.
Hydrogel Process Creates Transparent Brain
April 11, 2013 10:16 am | by Andrew Myers, Stanford Engineering | News | CommentsCombining neuroscience and chemical engineering, researchers at Stanford University have developed a process that renders a mouse brain transparent. The postmortem brain remains whole — not sliced or sectioned in any way — with its three-dimensional complexity of fine wiring and molecular structures completely intact and able to be measured and probed at will with visible light and chemicals.
Mouse Brains Made Transparent
April 10, 2013 1:08 pm | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsTalk about clearing your head: Stanford University scientists have found a way to make see-through mouse brains. You take the brain out of the mouse, soak it in chemicals for a couple of days, and voila: It becomes transparent. That's not just a parlor trick.
St. Jude Medical Receives CE Mark Approval of Deep Brain Stimulation Systems
April 10, 2013 12:30 pm | by J.C. Weigelt, St. Jude Medical | News | CommentsSt. Jude Medical has announced European CE Mark approval of its Brio™, Libra™ and LibraXP™ deep brain stimulation (DBS) systems for managing the symptoms of intractable primary and secondary dystonia, a neurological movement disorder that causes a person’s muscles to contract and involuntarily spasm, reducing the ability to control movement.
Physicist Stephen Hawking Visits L.A. Stem Cell Lab
April 10, 2013 9:59 am | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsStephen Hawking toured a stem cell laboratory Tuesday where scientists are studying ways to slow the progression of Lou Gehrig's disease, a neurological disorder that has left the British cosmologist almost completely paralyzed. After the visit, the 71-year-old Hawking urged doctors, nurses and staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to support the research.
System Provides Clear Brain Scans of Awake, Unrestrained Mice
April 9, 2013 11:53 am | by Kandice Carter, Jefferson Lab | News | CommentsSetting a mouse free to roam might alarm most people, but not so for nuclear imaging researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Maryland who have developed a new imaging system for mouse brain studies.
AdvaMed 2013: The MedTech Conference
April 8, 2013 3:37 pm | by MDT Staff | EventsAdvaMed 2013 is the leading MedTech conference in North America, bringing more than 1,000 companies together in a uniquely multifaceted environment for business development, capital formation, innovative technology showcasing, world-class educational opportunities and networking.
Why Obama's Brain-Mapping Project Matters
April 8, 2013 12:00 am | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | News | CommentsLast week, President Obama officially announced $100 million in funding for arguably the most ambitious neuroscience initiative ever proposed. The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, or BRAIN, as the project is now called, aims to reconstruct the activity of every single neuron as they fire simultaneously in different brain circuits, or perhaps even whole brains.
The Cost of Dementia
April 5, 2013 3:12 pm | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | News | CommentsDementia’s financial impact on the U.S. economy in 2010 was around $109 billion, reported researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. That figure largely consists of the costs of nursing-home care and home-based care, and it will likely double by 2040 as the population ages, according to the study.
