Have you ever imagined how many sensors, signal processing and subtasks it takes for the body to process and execute a success command? The recent paper by Crea et al (Scientific Reports 2018) represents an exciting step towards the development of practical brain-computer interfaces (BCI). In this case, the development is designed for patients […]
Some would say that my mom is a bit eccentric … When we were little, she would have us play a fun game … well, I remember this happening at least once probably around 1975. The game was … telepathy. My siblings and I would sit around for a while trying to transmit each other thoughts. […]
Some years ago I was deeply intrigued by the notion of “locking” into natural brain rhythms using tACS or more exotic tCS flavors. The basic notion stems from the idea of resonance the phenomenon in which a forced dynamical system is able to accumulate more and more energy from dynamically-matched external forcing, as in a swing (all parents […]
In a recent posts I provided an overview of tCS in Stroke and Pain. Here I do the same but for Depression (only tDCS papers appear, though). Please let me know if you think I am missing some important one! I have relied on Google Scholar and also PubMed to carry out the search, including […]
Is transcranial current stimulation (tCS, including direct current, tDCS, alternating current, tACS, or random noise stimulation tRNS) effective? Now that is a good and difficult question! Let me try to review recent developments. In a recent post I provided an overview of tCS in Stroke. Here I do the same but for Pain. Please let […]
Is transcranial current stimulation (tCS, including direct current, tDCS, alternating current, tACS, or random noise stimulation tRNS) effective? Now that is a good and difficult question! Let me try to review recent developments. There continues to be a high intensity in the research community probing this question in addition to using tCS for pure, fundamental […]
EEG – electroencephalography – provides a tool to study brain activity. Neurons create electrical chatter while they go about their work, and this “noise” contains valuable information, providing a unique window to peer into brain function. Of course, we are still a long ways from cracking this particular code, but we are making constant progress […]
In this blog post I review – briefly and by no means exhaustively – some of the literature on the use of tDCS in stroke. This is of special interest to me these days, as I am involved in a study with my colleagues at the Burke Medical Research Institute in White Plains (NY, USA) […]
What do we know about the safety of tDCS and its variants? Quite a bit, as it turns out: in short, application of tDCS with the protocols used to date appears to be safe [Poreisz2007a, Brunoni2011a]. Already in 2008, Nitsche et al concluded: Extensive animal and human evidence and theoretical knowledge indicate that the currently […]
Brain stimulation refers to the application of electric fields to the brain for therapeutic purposes. As a technique, it dates back to ancient times, when early doctors used electric fish to treat – we presume with limited success – a range of malaises. Today, electrical brain stimulation is widely used in neurology and psychiatry to treat ailments such […]