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Worldwide, more than six million people suffer from Parkinson's disease, of which tremor is the most visible symptom. It is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease.
Fifty million more people suffer from epilepsy, characterized by seizures. But now, a new device, called WAND, gives hope to those affected by these neurological diseases: it promises to be "extremely effective" in preventing tremors and convulsions.
This neurostimulator, developed by scientists from the University of California at Berkeley in the United States, is capable of monitoring the electrical activity of the brain and simultaneously providing the patient with the stimuli. energy to stimulate certain areas of the brain if it detects an abnormality. 19659002] Defined as a "wireless artifact-free neuromodulation device", which derives its acronym, WAND monitors brain activity in 128 points at a time. "We want the chip to know the best way to do it – to stimulate the brain in a given patient, and that can only be done by controlling and recording their neural activity," says Rikky Muller, badistant professor of engineering. electrical and computer in Berkeley.
The necessary adjustments
To test the effectiveness of the neurostimulator, the research team used it to identify and delay movement of an arm in primates.
WAND is wireless and autonomous, which means that when it learns to identify tremors, it adjusts only electrical stimulation parameters to avoid involuntary movements
.] "In the future, our goal is to create intelligent devices to discover the best way to treat the patient and prevent"
The engineering team hopes to be able to work with the doctors in the next steps to make "minor adjustments", but warns that the sale of the device could take years.
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