Patterned pulses boost the effects of deep brain stimulation, research shows
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 09:14
in Health & Medicine
Electrical stimulation has been used as a sort of defibrillator of consciousness, rousing a victim of traumatic brain injury to at least partial awareness, after years in a coma. The procedure, termed deep brain stimulation, has also been used to treat Parkinson`s disease and has shown some promise for use in epilepsy, cluster headaches and treatment-resistant depression. But new research shows that the even, equally spaced electrical pulses typically used in the procedure now are not necessarily the most effective. Complicating the temporal pattern, Rockefeller University researchers say, may improve outcomes by more closely mimicking the dynamic signals that comprise the natural traffic of neurons.