Trend: Rethinking (and treating) chronic pain as a brain disease

By SharpBrains | December 27, 2018

Can stim­u­lat­ing the brain treat chron­ic pain? (Sci­ence Dai­ly): “We’ve pub­lished numer­ous brain stim­u­la­tion papers over sev­er­al years, and we always learn some­thing impor­tant,” said senior author Flavio Frohlich, PhD, direc­tor of the Car­oli­na Cen­ter for Neu­rostim­u­la­tion and asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of psy­chi­a­try. “But this is the first time we’ve stud­ied chron­ic pain, and this is the…

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FDA clears deep transcranial magnetic stimulation device to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder

By SharpBrains | September 14, 2018

Brain­sWay’s Brain Stim­u­la­tion Device Receives FDA Approval to Treat Obses­­sive-Com­pul­­sive Dis­or­der (IEEE Spec­trum): “In 2013, Jerusalem-based Brain­sWay began mar­ket­ing a new type of brain stim­u­la­tion device that uses mag­net­ic puls­es to treat major depres­sive dis­or­der. Now, thanks to pos­i­tive results in a study of 100 patients, the com­pa­ny has received approval from the U.S. Food…

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Update: Study finds continued birth of new neurons (neurogenesis) well into our 70s

By SharpBrains | April 25, 2018

___ Time for Sharp­Brains eNewslet­ter, bring­ing you the lat­est in in brain health and men­tal health research, tools and think­ing. Also, a quick heads-up for those based in the UK: the Impe­r­i­al Col­lege Cen­tre for Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy will host a keynote by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez in Lon­don on Wednes­day, May 30th, titled Why the Future of Brain Enhance­ment & Men­tal Health is Dig­i­tal & Per­va­sive (free;…

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Research trend: Combining brain stimulation with cognitive training to enhance attention and memory

By Tessa Abagis | April 2, 2018

In 47 CE, Scri­bo­nius Largus, court physi­cian to the Roman emper­or Claudius, described in his Com­po­si­tiones a method for treat­ing chron­ic migraines: place tor­pe­do fish on the scalps of patients to ease their pain with elec­tric shocks. Largus was on the right path; our brains are com­prised of elec­tri­cal sig­nals that influ­ence how brain cells…

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Important insights on the growing home use of tDCS brain stimulation: older-than-expected users, positive self-reported results for treatment of depression but negative for self-enhancement, and a couple areas of concern (severe burns, frequency)

By SharpBrains | January 18, 2018

___ At the 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit last month, researcher and sci­ence writer Dr. Anna Wexler dis­cussed some fas­ci­nat­ing insights from her sur­vey of 339 home (or “do-it-your­­self”) users of tDCS (tran­scra­nial direct cur­rent stim­u­la­tion) devices. The sur­vey results have just been pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Cog­ni­tive Enhance­ment (details below), and pro­vide a use­ful win­dow into who…

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What are the most promising lifestyle and tech options to harness lifelong neuroplasticity?

By SharpBrains | December 22, 2017

What are the most promis­ing lifestyle and tech options to har­ness life­long neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, and what are key road­blocks ahead? (record­ing requires reg­is­tra­tion; view slid­edeck above or Here) Dr. Álvaro Pas­cual-Leone, Direc­tor of the Beren­­son-Allen Cen­ter for Non­in­va­sive Brain Stim­u­la­tion at Beth Israel Dea­coness Med­ical Cen­ter Dr. David Bartrés-Faz, Prin­ci­pal Inves­ti­ga­tor of the Barcelona Brain Health Ini­tia­tive (BBHI) Dr. Simone Schurle, Assistant…

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