Reactivating the Brain in 2022 (How to?)

 

Reactivating the Brain in 2022; “How to” 

        Although there have been many advancements in manipulating the brain through magnetic and electrical stimulation, the applicability of these experimental methods is still new and being innovated. 

        Through Dr. Pavon’s lecture, we have seen TMS being used alongside EEG in order to collectively study the neurophysiology of the human brain. Dr. Pavon was interested in studying motor and language systems that reside in our brain, and he is using this knowledge to develop speech therapies for post-stroke candidates (Pavon, 2019). His research was really meaningful to me, and it sparked a question within me. What other studies are there which delve deeper upon connectivity, excitability (or lack thereof), and neuroplasticity? If there are other studies, are they involved with other brain systems and how is application looking like on that end? 

        One of the lectures that I have attended outside of class is from Noam Y. Harel, a physician at the Peters VA Medical center. His article, “Non-Invasive electrical stimulation for spinal cord injury and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” was very informative and showed that this type of brain stimulation could be very helpful for other neurological diseases as well. Dr. Harel talks about how spinal cord injury (SCI) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are both known to result in “frying” of spinal cord circuits (Harel, 2021). ALS and SCI will reduce the connections between the motor neurons which aid in the planning (pre-cursor step) and execution of movement. Through their research, the researchers have discovered that they are able to electrically stimulate these spinal cord circuits in order to increase the effectiveness of the circuit. Not only that, but by stimulating these circuits, the brain is actually also able to increase its neural plasticity. Dr. Harel uses this phenomenon to increase the sensitivity of circuits and enhance the body’s response when it receives signals from higher level brain processing (Harel, 2020). 

         In fact, one of the novel methods that has been developed in Dr. Harel’s lab is cervical electrical stimulation, also known as CES. This is a non-invasive method that actually activates muscles on upper limbs by innervating motor nerve root ganglions. This is in a graded matter, meaning that different intensity will have a different effect (Harel 2020). Dr. Harel’s lab has a motto, “Fire together and wire together”. He talks about how nerves will strengthen if they are fired simultaneously. Similar to Dr. Pavon’s research, Dr. Harel is also testing to find the “sweet spot” of testing different combinations of magnetic and electrical stimulation in the brain. Identifying this “sweet spot” means that the researchers need to do a lot of work in order to see what is the timings and frequency of activation that will yield the maximum results/benefits. The possibilities of this research are very diverse and affect many body systems. In fact, Dr. Harel and his team are working on even improving hand function, lumbar spine mobility, blood flow, and even inflammation. 

         This type of rehabilitation research takes a lot of work and data to complete because it not only requires internal validity, but it also requires a lot of generalizability. This research must be able to apply to all people of various backgrounds, hence it requires a lot of work done on the backend, and it involves lots of statistics and data processing. I find the area of non-invasive experimental methods really interesting because this is the future, a science that will allow us to aid/help the most powerful entity, the brain. 

 Citations: 

M Boakye, B Ugiliweneza, F Madrigal, S Mesbah… - Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural                 Interface, 2021, “Clinical trial designs for neuromodulation in chronic spinal cord injury using                 epidural stimulation” 

Nigel C. Rogasch, Caley Sullivan, Richard H. Thomson, Nathan S. Rose, Neil W. Bailey, Paul B.                    Fitzgerald, Faranak Farzan, Julio C. Hernandez-Pavon, “Analysing concurrent transcranial magnetic         stimulation and electroencephalographic data: A review and introduction to the open-source TESA             software, NeuroImage, Volume 147, 2017, Pages 934-951, ISSN 1053-8119,                                                 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.10.031. 

Yu-Kuang Wu, Jonah M. Levine, Jaclyn R. Wecht, Matthew T. Maher, James M. LiMonta, Sana Saeed,         Tiffany M. Santiago, Eric Bailey, Shivani Kastuar, Kenneth S. Guber, Lok Yung, Joseph P. Weir, Jason        B. Carmel, Noam Y. Harel, Posteroanterior cervical transcutaneous spinal stimulation targets ventral          and dorsal nerve roots, Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 131, Issue 2, 2020, Pages 451-460, ISSN         1388-2457, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2019.11.056.