Transcranial-Magnetic-Stimulation

Studies find growing evidence linking weight, physical activity, neuroplasticity and depression

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Being over­weight can cause depres­sion — and exer­cise is an anti­dote, dual stud­ies con­firm (Run­ner’s World):

A large-scale study from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Exeter has found ‘robust evi­dence’ that being over­weight hikes up your risk of devel­op­ing depres­sion – but as fresh evi­dence con­firms, log­ging your morn­ing miles is one of the most effec­tive ways to fight back. Exer­cise jolts your brain into action, and not just because of the endor­phin high … ‘Obe­si­ty and depres­sion are both major glob­al health chal­lenges, and our study pro­vides the most robust evi­dence to date that high­er BMI caus­es depres­sion,’ said lead author Jess O’Lough­lin. ‘Under­stand­ing whether phys­i­cal or social fac­tors are respon­si­ble for this rela­tion­ship can help inform effec­tive strate­gies to improve men­tal health and well­be­ing.’ [Read more…] about Stud­ies find grow­ing evi­dence link­ing weight, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and depression

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)

Photobiomodulation: A new and promising way to enhance brain function

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As is increas­ing­ly evi­dent, there are mul­ti­ple meth­ods aimed at enhanc­ing brain function.

Brain train­ing and mind­ful­ness prac­tices are com­mon­ly used. Sub­stance-based meth­ods are pop­u­lar too, includ­ing hal­lu­cino­gens in the form of plant extracts, and drugs. Same as tran­scra­nial direct cur­rent stim­u­la­tion (tDCS) and tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stim­u­la­tion (TMS): All of these are promis­ing but have been chal­lenged — for exam­ple, the repro­ducibil­i­ty of elec­tri­cal-based stim­u­la­tion results is increas­ing­ly ques­tioned. [Read more…] about Pho­to­bio­mod­u­la­tion: A new and promis­ing way to enhance brain function

Enabling deep, focused transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): Key neurotechnology patent #34

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magnetic stimulation
– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 7,520,848

Today we are shar­ing a key 2009 patent, assigned to Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, that enables the stim­u­la­tion of deep­er struc­tures of the brain with­out over­whelm­ing super­fi­cial struc­tures that are not the focus of treat­ment. (As men­tioned, we are fea­tur­ing a foun­da­tion­al Per­va­sive Neu­rotech patent a day, from old­er to new­er by issue date)

U.S. Patent No. 7,520,848: Robot­ic appa­ra­tus for tar­get­ing and pro­duc­ing deep, focused tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stimulation

  • Assignee(s): Board of Trustees of the Leland Stan­ford Junior University
  • Inventor(s): M. Bret Schnei­der, David J. Mishelevich
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Tran­scra­nial Stimulation
  • Issue Date: April 21, 2009

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘848 patent dis­clos­es tech­niques for stim­u­lat­ing deep­er struc­tures of the brain with­out over­whelm­ing super­fi­cial struc­tures that are not the focus of treat­ment. [Read more…] about Enabling deep, focused tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stim­u­la­tion (TMS): Key neu­rotech­nol­o­gy patent #34

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

The state and future of robotics applied to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): Key Neurotech Patent #25

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apparatus
– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 7,087,008

Today we are shar­ing a key 2006 patent assigned to The Regents of The Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas, the NIH, and the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Ser­vices. (As men­tioned, we are fea­tur­ing a foun­da­tion­al Per­va­sive Neu­rotech patent a day, from old­er to new­er by issue date)

U.S. Patent No. 7,087,008: Appa­ra­tus and meth­ods for deliv­ery of tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stimulation.

  • Assignee(s): The Regents of The Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas; The NIH, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Ser­vices Government
  • Inventor(s): Peter Fox, Jack Lancaster
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Tran­scra­nial Stimulation
  • Issue Date: August 8, 2006

SharpBrains’ Take:

With a fair­ly exten­sive spec­i­fi­ca­tion (span­ning 19 illus­tra­tion sheets and 18 pages of writ­ten mate­r­i­al), the ‘008 dis­clos­es teach­ings that lever­age the pre­ci­sion of robot­ic move­ment capa­bil­i­ties to enhance tar­get­ed tran­scra­nial stim­u­la­tion. Four inde­pen­dent claims pro­vide broad and inter­weav­ing claim cov­er­age over the robotic/transcranial stim­u­la­tion sys­tem and meth­ods. [Read more…] about The state and future of robot­ics applied to Tran­scra­nial Mag­net­ic Stim­u­la­tion (TMS): Key Neu­rotech Patent #25