epilepsy

Study: Wearable sensors and machine learning may well (one day) help detect a broad range of epileptic seizures

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Wear­able Device Clears a First ‘Mile­stone’ in Seizure Detec­tion (Med­scape; requires subscription):

A wrist-worn device that uses machine learn­ing accu­rate­ly detects dif­fer­ent seizure types in find­ings that have the poten­tial to rev­o­lu­tion­ize the man­age­ment of patients with epilepsy.

“We have set a first bench­mark for auto­mat­ic detec­tion of a vari­ety of epilep­tic seizures using wear­able sen­sors and deep-learn­ing algo­rithms. In oth­er words, we have shown for the first time that it’s pos­si­ble to do this,” study inves­ti­ga­tor Jian­bin Tang, MA, Data Sci­ence Project Lead, IBM Research Aus­tralia, Vic­to­ria, told Med­scape Med­ical News. [Read more…] about Study: Wear­able sen­sors and machine learn­ing may well (one day) help detect a broad range of epilep­tic seizures

How to intervene early to address brain/ mental health problems: Examples in depression, epilepsy and smoking cessation

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We hope you enjoy this slid­edeck sup­port­ing a fas­ci­nat­ing, for­ward-look­ing ses­sion held at the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: The Future of Brain Health (March 7–9th).  Full record­ings are avail­able for pur­chase here.

10.45am-12.15pm. How to inter­vene ear­ly: Exam­ples in depres­sion, epilep­sy and smok­ing cessation 

  • Dr. Wal­ter Green­leaf, Research Sci­en­tist at Stan­ford University’s Vir­tu­al Human Inter­ac­tion Lab
  • David B. Klein, CEO of Click Ther­a­peu­tics
  • Ana Maiques, CEO of Neu­ro­electrics
  • Chaired by: Avery Bedows, Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy Spe­cial­ist at Loup Ven­tures

Next: Monitoring the body’s electrical signalling to enhance brain health

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Researchers are seek­ing to record and inter­pret the body’s elec­tri­cal sig­nals. Pic­ture: ZEISS Microscopy/Flickr

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READING THE BODY’S ELECTRICAL SIGNALS TO TREAT ILLNESS (Uni­ver­si­ty of Melbourne):

“Chem­i­cal elec­tric­i­ty is how we move, think, and remember.

And increas­ing­ly, as tech­nol­o­gy minia­turis­es and com­put­er pow­er mul­ti­plies, it’s how we are treat­ing chron­ic illness.

Since the ful­ly implantable pace­mak­er was devel­oped in the 1950s to keep a patient’s heart beat­ing in rhythm using elec­tri­cal impuls­es, engi­neers have now gone on to devel­op devices that can be implant­ed direct­ly in the brain, under the scalp, or even inside blood ves­sels to treat dis­eases and dis­or­ders like Parkinson’s and epilep­sy, as well as men­tal ill­ness­es and paralysis.

But Pro­fes­sor David Gray­den in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Melbourne’s Depart­ment of Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing is aim­ing to go fur­ther [Read more…] about Next: Mon­i­tor­ing the body’s elec­tri­cal sig­nalling to enhance brain health

Study: Brain scans mapping language and memory areas can help guide epilepsy-related surgeries

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---Language task fMRI and resting-state fMRI data from a presurgical patient with left temporal lobe epilepsy. Copyright Bradley Goodyear, Einat Liebenthal and Victoria Mosher.
—Lan­guage task fMRI and rest­ing-state fMRI data from a presur­gi­cal patient with left tem­po­ral lobe epilep­sy. Copy­right Bradley Goodyear, Einat Lieben­thal and Vic­to­ria Mosher.

Can brain scans help doc­tors nav­i­gate epilep­sy surgery? (UPI)

“…When med­ica­tion does­n’t effec­tive­ly con­trol epilep­sy, surgery may be rec­om­mend­ed. Doc­tors can remove the part of the brain that trig­gers seizures or use cer­tain pro­ce­dures to con­trol seizure activity.

Before surgery, how­ev­er, the brain must be “mapped” to ensure the regions respon­si­ble for lan­guage and mem­o­ry aren’t dam­aged dur­ing [Read more…] about Study: Brain scans map­ping lan­guage and mem­o­ry areas can help guide epilep­sy-relat­ed surgeries

Next: Targeted neurotechnology to augment–perhaps even take over–neuropharmacology

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deep-brain-stimulationNeu­rotech­nol­o­gy offers new solu­tions to treat­ing brain dis­eases (Dell Tech Culture):

“A new wave of med­ical tech­nolo­gies is chang­ing the way we approach study­ing the brain and treat­ing patients suf­fer­ing from neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­eases and men­tal illness.

For peo­ple suf­fer­ing from Parkinson’s, epilep­sy, OCD and severe depres­sion, these tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments are [Read more…] about Next: Tar­get­ed neu­rotech­nol­o­gy to augment–perhaps even take over–neuropharmacology

Thinking globally to improve mental health: New NIH initiative

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Think­ing glob­al­ly to improve men­tal health: NIH announces inter­na­tion­al research ini­tia­tive (press release):

- “The Grand Chal­lenges in Glob­al Men­tal Health Ini­tia­tive, led by the Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health and the Glob­al Alliance for Chron­ic Dis­eases, has iden­ti­fied the top 40 bar­ri­ers to bet­ter men­tal health around the world. Sim­i­lar to past grand chal­lenges, which [Read more…] about Think­ing glob­al­ly to improve men­tal health: New NIH initiative