Non-invasive brain stimulation meets nanotechnology

. MIT Researchers Devel­op Wire­less, Non­in­va­sive Deep Brain Stim­u­la­tion Approach (Med Device online): “Sci­en­tists have intro­duced a nov­el method of admin­is­ter­ing brain stim­u­la­tion that requires no implants or exter­nal con­nec­tions. By inject­ing mag­net­ic nanopar­ti­cles into the brain, researchers have found that they can manip­u­late neu­rons by apply­ing exter­nal mag­net­ic fields

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Good survey of brain stimulation methods, value and limitations

Stim­u­lat­ing the Brain: From If to How (The Dana Foun­da­tion): “Recent years have brought mod­ern meth­ods of brain stim­u­la­tion into the main­stream of neu­rol­o­gy and psy­chi­a­try. But their mechanism—how exact­ly deep brain stim­u­la­tion (DBS) relieves Parkinson’s dis­ease symp­toms and how repet­i­tive tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stim­u­la­tion (rTMS) improves depres­sion, for example—remains obscure. Research

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Can Direct Brain Stimulation Boost Performance?

Neu­rons in the brain trans­mit infor­ma­tion by exchang­ing elec­tri­cal and chem­i­cal sig­nals. What would hap­pen if these elec­tri­cal sig­nals were trans­formed by apply­ing an exter­nal cur­rent? Could this help boost brain func­tions? In this arti­cle, Tran­scra­nial direct cur­rent stim­u­la­tion (tDCS) is report­ed to help peo­ple solve brain-teasers. In the study weak cur­rents altered the activity…

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