TMS

Reinventing depression treatment via transcranial magnetic brain stimulation (TMS)

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Deirdre Lehman with Nolan Williams, who over­saw this clin­i­cal tri­al of a poten­tial treat­ment that uses tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stim­u­la­tion. In the pho­to, Williams and Lehman demon­strate how a patient is posi­tioned and the equip­ment is used. Cred­it: Steve Fisch.

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Stan­ford researchers devise treat­ment that relieved depres­sion in 90% of par­tic­i­pants in small study (press release):

“A new form of mag­net­ic brain stim­u­la­tion rapid­ly relieved symp­toms of severe depres­sion in 90% of par­tic­i­pants in a small study con­duct­ed by researchers at the Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine … In tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stim­u­la­tion, elec­tric cur­rents from a mag­net­ic coil placed on the scalp excite a region of the brain impli­cat­ed in depres­sion. The treat­ment, as approved by the FDA, requires [Read more…] about Rein­vent­ing depres­sion treat­ment via tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic brain stim­u­la­tion (TMS)

Update: To honor Brain Awareness Week 2017, let’s highlight 10 Key Facts To Harness Neuroplasticity And Improve Brain Fitness

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– Giant neu­ron iden­ti­fied in mouse brain via nov­el brain imag­ing tech­nique. Study linked below.

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Last week was Brain Aware­ness Week, so let’s first of all dis­cuss these 10 Key Facts to Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty & Improve Brain Fit­ness com­ing from the hun­dreds of sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical stud­ies we ana­lyzed to pre­pare the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Improve Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age.

And here’s the rest of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter explor­ing the lat­est in brain health and men­tal performance.

New research:

New thinking:

New tools (via SharpBrains’ analysis of neurotech patents):

 

Final­ly, here’s a brain teas­er to test your pat­tern recog­ni­tion and oth­er cog­ni­tive skills: The Emp­ty Tri­an­gle.

 

Have a nice Spring!

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

The future of personalized brain stimulation via enhanced cognitive-emotive profiles: Key neurotechnology patent #31

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cognitive-emotive profiles
– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 7,460,903

Today we high­light a fas­ci­nat­ing 2008 patent describ­ing how to com­bine a num­ber of neu­rotech­nolo­gies (EEG feed­back, TMS brain stim­u­la­tion, monitoring/ train­ing soft­ware) to help “upgrade” one’s cog­ni­tive-emo­tive profile.

U.S. Patent No. 7,460,903: Method and sys­tem for a real time adap­tive sys­tem for effect­ing changes in cog­ni­tive-emo­tive profiles

  • Inventor(s): Jaime A. Pine­da, Bren­dan Z. Allison
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Hybrid
  • Issue Date: Decem­ber 2, 2008

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘903 patent describes cou­pling neu­romon­i­tor­ing with brain activ­i­ty induc­ing tech­nolo­gies by com­bin­ing tech­niques includ­ing EEG brain­waves, TMS devices, and a set of soft­ware tools to enhance brain func­tion­al­i­ty in adap­tive and durable ways, via upgrad­ed indi­vid­ual cog­ni­tive-emo­tive pro­files. [Read more…] about The future of per­son­al­ized brain stim­u­la­tion via enhanced cog­ni­tive-emo­tive pro­files: Key neu­rotech­nol­o­gy patent #31

Facilitating clinical treatments via Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): Key Neurotechnology Patent #21

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magnetic stimulation
– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 6,926,660

Today we are shar­ing a key 2005 patent assigned to Neu­ro­net­ics, Inc. (As men­tioned, we are fea­tur­ing a foun­da­tion­al Per­va­sive Neu­rotech patent a day, from old­er to new­er by issue date)

U.S. Patent No. 6,926,660: Facil­i­tat­ing treat­ment via mag­net­ic stimulation.

  • Assignee(s): Neu­ro­net­ics, Inc.
  • Inventor(s): Stan­ford W. Miller
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Tran­scra­nial Stimulation
  • Issue Date: August 9, 2005

SharpBrains’ Take:

TMS treat­ments pro­ce­dures are more effec­tive and effi­cient if tar­get­ed stim­u­la­tion to the patient can be quick­ly and eas­i­ly repeat­ed, rather than blind­ly hunt­ing for the cor­rect loca­tion and ori­en­ta­tion after ini­tial dosing/ test­ing pro­ce­dures con­duct­ed to deter­mine the appro­pri­ate stim­u­la­tion field strength and loca­tion. [Read more…] about Facil­i­tat­ing clin­i­cal treat­ments via Tran­scra­nial Mag­net­ic Stim­u­la­tion (TMS): Key Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy Patent #21

Computer modeling meets Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): Key Neurotech Patent #17

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transcranial magnetic stimulation
– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 6,827,681

This is a very inter­est­ing 2004 patent, assigned to Brain­lab AG,  out­lin­ing a way to use com­put­er mod­el­ing to tar­get brain stimulation.

U.S. Patent No. 6,827,681: Method and device for tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stimulation.

  • Assignee(s): Brain­lab AG
  • Inventor(s): Phillipp Tan­ner, Andreas Hartlep, Hen­rik Wist, Ker­stin Wen­dicke, Thomas Weyh
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Tran­scra­nial Stimulation
  • Issue Date: Decem­ber 7, 2004

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘681 patent claims broad cov­er­age over the use of com­put­er mod­el­ing in tar­get­ed brain stim­u­la­tion tech­niques. [Read more…] about Com­put­er mod­el­ing meets Tran­scra­nial Mag­net­ic Stim­u­la­tion (TMS): Key Neu­rotech Patent #17

Witnessing an explosion of consumer-facing neurotechnologies to (potentially) harness lifelong neuroplasticity

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Last week I shared some key sci­en­tif­ic, tech­no­log­i­cal and invest­ment trends rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing Brain Health, based on my par­tic­i­pa­tion at the 2016 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit, and promised a sec­ond arti­cle more focused on the tech­nol­o­gy side of things.

Here it is 🙂

Just a few weeks after the Sharp­Brains Sum­mit I also attend­ed CES 2017. While I enjoyed the myr­i­ad emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies –autonomous vehi­cles, robot­ics, drones, aug­ment­ed and vir­tu­al real­i­ty head­sets, voice acti­vat­ed every­thing– I was most­ly struck by a firm named Halo Neu­ro­science. They have a fas­ci­nat­ing wear­able prod­uct, Halo Sport, claim­ing to accel­er­ate gains in strength, explo­sive­ness, endurance, and mus­cle mem­o­ry, improv­ing the brain’s response to ath­let­ic train­ing. It uses tDCS (tran­scra­nial direct cur­rent stim­u­la­tion), essen­tial­ly prim­ing move­ment-relat­ed cir­cuits of the brain to become more recep­tive to stim­uli, help­ing the brain wire in the prac­tice for improved future response.

The cutting edge of applied neuroplasticity

Both con­fer­ences allowed me to see the cut­ting edge of [Read more…] about Wit­ness­ing an explo­sion of con­sumer-fac­ing neu­rotech­nolo­gies to (poten­tial­ly) har­ness life­long neuroplasticity