Over five million Americans are permanently crippled due to traumatic brain injuries. They often have to leave their jobs or stop going to school because they cannot focus on doing even the smallest things. However, on Monday, December 4, a study was released that could give them a sense of hope.
Successful Implant?
Electrodes were inserted in the brains of five patients who suffered from mild to severe brain injuries. Their results on cognitive tests improved as the electrodes stimulated their brains.
According to The New York Times, the researchers speculated that the implants may be the first successful treatment for persistent brain damage if the findings are confirmed in bigger clinical studies. Dr. Nicholas Schiff, a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York who oversaw the research, said: "This is the first evidence that you can move the dial for this problem."
One of the implant recipients, Gina Arata, was 22 years old when she suffered from fatigue, memory loss, and emotional instability as a result of a car accident. She was unable to hold down a job and ended up living with her parents in Modesto, California, after abandoning her ambitions to go to law school.
Arata got the implant in 2018, 18 years after the accident. She said a dramatic shift had occurred in her life. "I can be a normal human being and have a conversation. It's kind of amazing how I've seen myself improve."
Implants transmit minute electric pulses hundreds of times per second, which stimulate nearby neurons to generate their impulses and restore certain brain functions.
Network of Brain Regions
Dr. Schiff and colleagues drew on extensive brain structural studies over many years to develop the analysis. The results of these investigations seem to point to a network of interconnected brain areas that are essential for sustained attention. To maintain network activity, the areas communicate with one another, forming a feedback loop.
Theoretically, Dr. Schiff and others have postulated that abrupt brain movement (as in a car accident or a fall) might disrupt some long-distance connections in the network, causing individuals to enter a coma. The network may be able to restore its power throughout the recovery process. Recovery may be more challenging in cases with serious brain injury.
The team led by Dr. Schiff identified an anatomical region deep inside the brain as the network's central node. The central lateral nucleus is a thin layer of neurons that looks like an almond shell.
Each hemisphere of the human brain has one of these structures. They seem to assist the brain in settling down for sleep and waking up more effectively. According to the study, if you stimulate the neurons in these areas, you may make a sleeping rat wake up.
Restoring attention and concentration after a catastrophic brain injury may be possible by activating the central lateral nuclei.
