The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Scientists use brain electrodes to treat anorexia Posted: 08 Mar 2013 11:49 PM PST
The technique is in an experimental phase and only some patients had improved, but the treatment showed promise, they wrote in the Lancet medical journal. After nine months, three of the six patients in the trial had put on weight and appeared to be in a better state of mind, said the team of specialists from the United States and Canada. For the three, "this was the longest period of sustained increase in BMI (Body Mass Index — the ratio between a person's height and weight) since the onset of their illness," wrote the authors. Furthermore, the technique known as deep brain stimulation (DBS) "was associated with improvements in mood, anxiety... and anorexia nervosa-related obsessions and compulsions in four patients and with improvements in quality of life in three patients after six months of stimulation," said the paper. Three patients, however, showed no weight improvement and the scientists pointed out that the procedure was associated with "several adverse events" — including one woman suffering a seizure. Other effects included panic attacks, nausea and pain. Anorexia nervosa is usually a chronic illness that affects nearly one percent of people. It is typically diagnosed in young women aged 15-19. It has one of the highest mortality rates of a psychiatric disorder — between six and 11 percent — and is among the most difficult to treat, the authors wrote. The trial involved implanting electrodes into the part of the brain that regulates emotion so as to moderate the activity of dysfunctional brain circuits. The device, which works similar to a pacemaker, was connected to a pulse generator implanted under the skin. A the time of surgery, the women were aged between 24 and 57 and had been suffering from anorexia for between four and 37 years. DBS is used to treat several neurological disorders including Parkinson's disease and chronic pain, but this was a first for anorexia. In a comment on the study, Janet Treasure and Ulrike Schmidt of King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry said the findings were "promising". "The fact that the procedure was associated in some patients with improvements in affective and obsessional symptoms is of key importance since such improvements will go some way towards reassuring patients that DBS is not just another treatment designed to fatten them up without making them feel better," they wrote. — Reuters |
| ‘Brainpainting’ draws crowds at world’s top tech fair Posted: 08 Mar 2013 07:56 PM PST
Under a system pioneered by Austrian firm g-tec, the user wears a cap that measures brain activity. By focusing hard on a flashing icon on a screen, the cap can recognise the specific brain activity connected to that item, allowing the user to "choose" what he or she wants the computer to do. The artist can select various shapes and colours via brainpower and build up a basic picture on the screen, explained g-tec sales director Markus Bruckner. The user can also draw straight lines. "This is primarily for disabled people, paralysed people or people who have suffered a stroke," he said. The idea came from an artist who had a friend paralysed in an accident who loved painting. The artist wanted to find a way to let the friend draw again, said Bruckner, adding that g-tec was the only company offering this service. Altogether, the system costs €12,000 (RM48,447), including the brainwave-reading cap, the computer software and the technology to interpret the brain activity, said Bruckner. It has already been trialled successfully on severely disabled patients, he added. The CeBIT, in the northern German city of Hanover, is the world's biggest fair for high-tech, attracting this year around 4,100 exhibitors from some 70 countries. — Afp-Relaxnews |
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