http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The first two stereo-EEG explorations in Finland were carried out by neurosurgeons of the Epilepsy surgery team in Helsinki University Central Hospital this spring. The method reinforces other examination methods already in use and opens an excellent opportunity in the exploration of the electric activity of both the surface and the deep brain structures during epileptic seizures. The examination also enables exact localization of the functionally important areas of the brain and improves safety of epilepsy surgery at a later stage. http://phys.org/news220696595.html Medicine & Health Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:36:59 EST news220696595 Patients suffering from dystonia, an uncommon yet potentially crippling movement disorder, get better results if they begin deep brain stimulation therapy sooner rather than later, according to an international study published in the March issue of the Journal of Neurology. http://phys.org/news220629872.html Medicine & Health Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:04:58 EST news220629872 A 65-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease became the first patient in the United States to receive a new device for deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy. http://phys.org/news219508308.html Medicine & Health Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:32:05 EST news219508308 A top medical researcher at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, has launched a clinical trial to pinpoint brain activity in depressed people by using scientifically designed sad and heartrending photos and music. Results will be used to help neurosurgeons at the new Barrow Center for Neuromodulation treat clinically depressed patients with deep brain stimulation. http://phys.org/news218914204.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:30:21 EST news218914204 Implanting electrodes into a pea-sized part of the brain can dramatically improve life for people with severe cervical dystonia – a rare but extremely debilitating condition that causes painful, twisting neck muscle spasms – according to the results of a pilot study led by Jill Ostrem, MD and Philip Starr, MD PhD at the University of California, San Francisco. http://phys.org/news218826974.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:16:32 EST news218826974 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have identified hyperactive cells in a tiny brain structure that may play an important role in depression. The study, conducted in rats and appearing in the February 24, 2011, issue of Nature, is helping to reveal a cellular mechanism for depressive disorders that could lead to new, effective treatments. http://phys.org/news217690482.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:34:57 EST news217690482 When obsessive-compulsive disorder is of crippling severity and drugs and behavior therapy can't help, there has been for just over a year a thread — or rather a wire — of hope. By inserting a thin electrode deep into the brain, doctors can precisely deliver an electrical current to a cord of the brain's wiring and soften the severity of the symptoms. "Deep brain stimulation" therapy for OCD won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2009 for extreme cases under its humanitarian device exemption. http://phys.org/news217242580.html Medicine & Health Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:10:21 EST news217242580 Physicians from the University of Bonn, Germany, together with colleagues from the US, have suggested a new target structure for a very promising depression therapy, the so-called deep brain stimulation. They hope to achieve an even better success rate with fewer side effects. http://phys.org/news215693142.html Medicine & Health Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:45:58 EST news215693142 Researchers were surprised to discover what may be a potential new treatment for difficult-to-control high blood pressure, according to a case report published in the January 25, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. http://phys.org/news215109898.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:45:09 EST news215109898 Pioneering neurosurgical treatment, a world first in Bristol, which very accurately targets brain networks involved in depression, could help people who suffer with severe and intractable depression. http://phys.org/news215087777.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:36:27 EST news215087777 Parkinson's disease symptoms begin subtly and worsen as damage to certain brain cells continues. But an electrical stimulation device implanted deep in the brain and programmed remotely, along with medications, may provide some control of "motor symptoms" common to the disease, such as shaking, stiffness, and loss of muscle control. http://phys.org/news214567095.html Medicine & Health Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:58:43 EST news214567095 Shooting steady pulses of electricity through slender electrodes into a brain area that controls complex behaviors has proven to be effective against several therapeutically stubborn neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Now, a new study has found that this technique, called deep brain stimulation (DBS), targets the same class of neuronal cells that are known to respond to physical exercise and drugs such as Prozac. http://phys.org/news211558459.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:40:01 EST news211558459 Parkinson's disease may stem from an energy crisis in the brain, years before symptoms appear. http://phys.org/news207837726.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:50:01 EST news207837726 Since the late 1990s, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has proven to be a lifeline for some patients suffering from Parkinson's disease, a cruel neurological disorder that can cause lack of control over movement, poor balance and coordination, and rigidity, among other symptoms. http://phys.org/news206179235.html Medicine & Health Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:00:45 EST news206179235 Using electrodes to stimulate areas deep within the brain may have therapeutic potential for patients with obsessive compulsive disorder that is refractory to treatment, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. http://phys.org/news205431388.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:20:01 EST news205431388 Electrical stimulation has been used as a sort of defibrillator of consciousness, rousing a victim of traumatic brain injury to at least partial awareness, after years in a coma. The procedure, termed deep brain stimulation, has also been used to treat Parkinson’s disease and has shown some promise for use in epilepsy, cluster headaches and treatment-resistant depression. But new research shows that the even, equally spaced electrical pulses typically used in the procedure now are not necessarily the most effective. Complicating the temporal pattern, Rockefeller University researchers say, may improve outcomes by more closely mimicking the dynamic signals that comprise the natural traffic of neurons. http://phys.org/news205059100.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:51:55 EST news205059100 In a world first, Dr. Andres M. Lozano and his team at Toronto Western Hospital has shown using Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) on patients with early signs of Alzheimer's disease is safe and may help improve memory. http://phys.org/news200145365.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:10:02 EST news200145365 (PhysOrg.com) -- Most scientists have viewed electrical fields within the brain as the simple byproducts of neuronal activity. However, Yale scientists report in the July 15 issue of the journal Neuron that electrical fields can also influence the activity of brain cells. http://phys.org/news198350025.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:50:13 EST news198350025 By stimulating certain areas of the brain, scientists can alleviate the effects of disorders such as depression or Parkinson's disease. That's the good news. But because controlling that stimulation currently lacks precision, over-stimulation is a serious concern — losing some of its therapeutic benefits for the patient over time. http://phys.org/news196958657.html Medicine & Health Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:20:01 EST news196958657 The ability to diagnose and treat brain dysfunction without surgery, may rely on a new method of noninvasive brain stimulation using pulsed ultrasound developed by a team of scientists led by William "Jamie" Tyler, a neuroscientist at Arizona State University. The approach, published in the journal Neuron on June 9, shows that pulsed ultrasound not only stimulates action potentials in intact motor cortex in mice but it also "elicits motor responses comparable to those only previously achieved with implanted electrodes and related techniques," says Yusuf Tufail, the lead author from ASU's School of Life Sciences. http://phys.org/news195306623.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:50:44 EST news195306623 In a major study, investigators have compared how individuals with Parkinson's disease respond to deep brain stimulation (DBS) at two different sites in the brain. Contrary to current belief, patients who received DBS at either site in the brain experienced comparable benefits for the motor symptoms of Parkinson's. http://phys.org/news194718278.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:40:01 EST news194718278 (PhysOrg.com) -- In an effort to bring together the top academic robotics labs under one roof, a project called EXPO21XX has created an online exhibition to showcase the diversity in today's robotics research. At one website, robotics researchers and enthusiasts can view the projects underway in more than 100 university robotics labs from around the world. http://phys.org/news189868063.html Electronics Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:08:33 EST news189868063 A recent study organized by Stanford University researchers found patients with refractory partial and secondarily generalized seizures had a reduction in seizures after deep brain stimulation. This multi-center clinical trial determined that the benefits of stimulation of the anterior nuclei of thalamus for epilepsy (SANTE) persisted and by 2 years there was a 56% reduction in seizure frequency. Full findings of this study are available early online in Epilepsia. http://phys.org/news188119214.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:30:01 EST news188119214 At Scott & White Memorial Hospital, a multi-disciplinary team of neurosurgeons, neurologists, neurophysiologist, neuropsychologists and a movement disorders specialist are offering hope to some Parkinson's patients with a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). DBS involves placing a thin wire that carries electrical currents deep within the brain on Parkinson's patients who are no longer benefitting from medications, and have significant uncontrollable body movements called dyskinesia. Scott & White is also performing research into the effects of DBS on the non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease including "drenching sweats," bladder dysfunction, depression, hallucination, anxiety, and dementia as well as intestinal disorders, loss of sense of smell, and sleep disturbances. http://phys.org/news183741188.html Medicine & Health Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:30:01 EST news183741188 Even with the best of available treatments, over a third of patients with depression may not achieve a satisfactory antidepressant response. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a form of targeted electrical stimulation in the brain via implanted electrodes, is now undergoing careful testing to determine whether it could play a role in the treatment of patients who have not sufficiently improved during more traditional forms of treatment. http://phys.org/news183722824.html Medicine & Health Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:07:51 EST news183722824 A team of neurosurgeons at Heidelberg University Hospital and psychiatrists at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim have for the first time successfully treated a patient suffering from severe depression by stimulating the habenula, a tiny nerve structure in the brain. The 64-year-old woman, who had suffered from depression since age 18, could not be helped by medication or electroconvulsive therapy. Since the procedure, she is for the first time in years free of symptoms. http://phys.org/news182176244.html Medicine & Health Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:50:02 EST news182176244 Lexi Haas is awakening into a world of new possibilities. Miracle by tiny miracle, she is making her body do what she wants -- instead of her body always controlling her. She looked up at her mother a few weeks ago, pursed her lips and, for the first time in her life, Lexi blew a kiss. http://phys.org/news178461795.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:43:51 EST news178461795 Thanks to a new method there is a reason for hope for patients with very severe depression. German physicians at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne have treated ten patients with deep brain stimulation. This involved implanting electrodes in the patients' nucleus accumbens. This centre has a key role in as the brains reward system, whose function may be impaired in depressive people. Subsequent to this treatment, the patients' depression improved significantly in half of the patients. All patients had suffered from very severe depression for many years and did not respond to any other therapies. The results of the study will be published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. http://phys.org/news176377535.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:50:01 EST news176377535 Deep brain stimulation may be a safe and effective treatment for Tourette syndrome, according to research published in the October 27, 2009, print issue of Neurology. http://phys.org/news175885169.html Medicine & Health Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:40:02 EST news175885169 Pioneering therapeutic trials to investigate the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in hard-to-treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's syndrome are underway at multiple medical centers around the world, according to a review in the June 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. http://phys.org/news165494463.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:41:59 EST news165494463