Medicine increasingly ask modifying your body with engineering , becoming a minuscule bit bionic woman to head a normal human living . character in point : new research paint a picture that brain implants may be the best discourse for epileptic seizures . Called “ electrode regalia monitoring technologies , ” these devices wire the brain with a hair - thin electrode and could make unsafe seizure into a matter of the yesteryear .
Why do seizures hap ?
seizure are the forcible aftereffect to a momentaryelectrical dissymmetry within the brainpower . These physical chemical reaction to these electric dissymmetry can run from a momentary increase in vigilance to an overall shaking of thebody extremity .
These electrical responses can be triggered due to symptomatic events like a decrease in blood glucose or a high pyrexia . Chronic seizures can occur due tobrain injury or illegitimate drug use . individual with epilepsy are plagued with frequent seizure due to apermanent change in brain morphology .
monitor seizure
The engineering science to monitor seizures using electrode array is currently available , but the thickness of current monitoring instrumentation , just about that of a credit card , foreclose the regalia from make tangency with the curvature and folding of the brain . The current monitoring method acting are used prior to surgery to excise parcel of the nous with consistent seizure activity , specially in patients with epilepsy .
investigator at the University of Pennsylvania have spring up aflexible electrode arraythinner than a piece of human hair . Such an array would be flexible enough to represent the contour of the human brainpower , increase the quality and coverage of electrical brain body process obtained , along with opening doors for provide the array in as an implant for electrical impulse monitoring in patient role with recur seizure activity .
Cats , not rat ( for once )
Felines were chosen for this subject field , as their psyche has more fold that mice and therefore mimic that of a human advantageously . In the bailiwick , self - sustaining “ spiral ” waveswere observed in the computerized tomography when researchers induce seizure in the big cat . This was the first sentence these spiral waves were observed , and remind researchers of wave that pass through centre tissue during ventricular fibrillation . Researchers are concerned to see if these spiral wafture occur in man .
plant electrodes in the brains of seizure sufferers
If human being also live spiral waves prior to a seizure , the designers of the ultrathin electrode arrays believe the technology could take a step beyond analyzing capture action . Dr. Brian Litt , a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia and leader of this research into flexile electrode array , said ,
Someday , these flexible arrays could be used to pinpoint where capture start in the brain and perhaps to keep out them down .
An electrode array implant could be used to emit an alternate waveform when spirals are observed in ordering to preclude a seizure . This is not far remove from the action of cardiac pacemakers and their activity when an arrhythmia is detected .
An electronic wit implant would move out the necessity for physical re - sectioning or remotion or a portion of the brain . Also , due to the modest size of the electrode array , it is potential that it could bepackaged or rolled and insertedinto the skull in a less invading manner .
Why not treat seizures with pharmaceuticals ?
Over a dozen anti - seizure medications are available via prescription , includingLyricaandKeprra , however , a pharmaceutical approaching does not work for everyone . Some somebody with a history of epilepsy can undergo a operative procedure if their seizures are constrained to the asingle focussing point of the brainpower .
Ananterior temporal lobectomyis one of the most common operative procedure for those with seizures systematically emanate from this part of the learning ability . Surgery remove a portion of the brainiac from the patient and bequeath them with scars that take class to heal , and these surgery leave only 60 % of patients seizure - free . A future involving auto - have electrode array implants could leave for a much high achiever rate coupled with less uttermost medical maneuver .
Images good manners of the Epilepsy Foundation , Nature , the National Institutes of Health , andShutterstock . author linked within the article .
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