Optimized brain stimulation and electrode placement to improve performance in a test of TBI in the lateral side of their thalamus
The data from the trial shows that five participants improved their performance by more than 50% in a cognitive test over the course of three months.
The improved performance with the device suggests that it is possible to “make a difference years out from injury,” says Little, who is research director at the Trauma and Resilience Center at UT Health.
The brain is damaged in traumatic brain injury, which causes the brain circuits to die and leads to cognitive difficulties for many years. More than 5 million people in the US suffer from this type of injury, which can make it difficult for them to resume their jobs and lives.
The participants, all of whom had experienced msTBI for at least two years, had surgery to implant electrodes near the lateral side of their thalamus in both brain hemispheres. Researchers spent 14 days adjusting the stimulation parameters for each participant after the surgery. Then, they used the implants to apply an electrical current at a frequency of 150–185 hertz for 12 hours a day for three months.
The research team used brain image data and specialized atlases to design personalized treatments for the five people who participated in the study.
Deep Brain Stimulation of a Neuroanatomy Patient with an Enabled Pulse, a Tool to Improve Attention and Working Memory
The participants were tested on a test that assessed their attention, taskSwitching, and working Memory. The participants had to connect letters in a pattern.
The team hopes to carry on this work by running larger trials, says study co-author Nicholas Schiff, a neurologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. They would also like to develop a reliable protocol to train other centres to deliver the treatment.
Little said that even a 10 percent change in function can make a difference between being able to return to your job or not.
If deep brain stimulation proves effective in a large study, she says, it might help a large number of brain injury patients who have run out of rehabilitation options.
“Once we put the wires in, we then hook the wires up to a pacemaker-like device that’s implanted in the chest,” Henderson says. “And then it can be programmed from the outside.”
So starting in 2018, Henderson operated on five patients, including Arata. All had suffered brain injuries at some point before receiving the implant.
The team hoped that by stimulating this hub they would improve connections with the brain’s executive center and help patients like Arata.
One of the areas in the brain that’s important to determining our levels of consciousness is called the central lateral nucleus.
Brain stimulation as an alternative therapy for the depressive condition: Gina Arata, a 44-year-old woman in Houston, had a hard time finding work
He was part of a team that used brain stimulation to help a patient in a minimally conscious state. Nearly a decade later, he teamed up with Henderson to test a similar approach on people like Gina Arata.
The study emerged from decades of research led by Dr. Nicholas Schiff, an author of the paper and a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
The results “show promise and the underlying science is very strong,” says Deborah Little, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UT Health in Houston.
When the stimulation was turned on, Arata could find a lot of items in the produce aisle. When it was off, she had trouble naming any.
Arata, who is 45 years old, has yet to find a job. Two years ago, as she was studying to become a dental assistant, she was affected by a rare condition that caused inflammation in her spine.