Treating Brain Diseases with Pacemaker

Researchers from the university of california had discovered a new device named WAND (Wireless artifact free-neuromodulation device) which acts as a pacemaker within the human brain. The new device detects the brain’s electrical activity and deliver electrical stimulation if it detects something amiss in the brain’s electrical activity.

According to the study this new device helps to recognise the signs of tremor and it can adjust the stimulation parameters to prevent the unwanted movements. The new device may help to treat epilepsy and parkinson disease. 

One of the professor at university of california, Rikky Muller said, “We want to enable the device to figure out what is the best way to stimulate for a give patient to give the best outcomes. The process of finding the right therapy for a patient is extremely costly and can take years.”

The new device WAND can record electrical activity from 128 points in the brain and compared to eight channels in other closed loop systems. To display the device researchers team used WAND to recognise and delay specific arm movements in monkeys.

After the training period researchers found that WAND device was capable of detecting the neural signatures and then deliver electrical stimulation. Muller said , “In  future researchers were aim to incorporate learning into closed loop platform to build intelligent devices and that can figure out how to treat best”.