No Result
View All Result
Friday, March 5, 2021
Chinese (Simplified)EnglishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseRussianSpanish
Near future
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Medicine
  • Society
  • Environment
  • Spazio
  • Transportation
  • Weather
  • concepts
  • H+
Near future
No Result
View All Result

A brain implant could help people get out of a coma

Coming out of a coma with an impulse, how do you restart a car by applying battery cables? A hypothesis studied on monkeys by an American team.

Gianluca Riccio di Gianluca Riccio
February 13 2020
in Medicine
Send to FacebookPin on PinterestSend on TwitterSend on Whatsappon Linkedin

In general, patients who have been in a coma for a long time are less and less likely to wake up. A recently published study, however, showed how the use of electrodes to deliver impulses to a specific brain region associated with consciousness can offer hope for awakening.

The study, led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers and published in the scientific journal Neuron , involved a research team that implanted electrodes in the brains of macaque monkeys. The aim: to get them out of a coma. Using an innovative technique called deep brain stimulation, the researchers did with these monkeys what a car is done using battery cables: give an impulse to start again.

The researchers targeted specific parts of the brain of the anesthetized monkeys called central lateral thalamus. When stimulated in that particular area, monkeys open their eyes, stretch or retract their limbs, move their faces and bodies. A technique not far from that of bypass already tested on paralyzed people, to give them the impulse to use the limbs.

Maybe you are also interested

A UCLA team 'reboots' the brains of two comatose patients with ultrasound

Study on Nature: the origins of language date back to 25 million years ago

A brain implant detects and lowers the symptoms of Parkinson's disease

Unconscious patients can 'talk' with the brain-computer interface

It is not a simple automatic reaction: the vital signs have also changed.

However, once the stimulation stopped, the monkeys returned to their original situation.

getting people out of a coma with an implant: still early

The study is still a few years away before a practical application on a human being. At least three steps are needed: in the first place, further testing on monkeys is required. It is necessary to see if the monkeys, in addition to leaving the coma momentarily, can perform complex activities before relapsing, once the impulse is "turned off", in their deep sleep. The next stage of the studies will have the task of confirming the efficacy and stability of the treatment. Finally, the most beautiful and fascinating part: the one in which an authorization will allow researchers to experiment with treatment on coma human patients.

It would be really wonderful if with a device it was possible to “restart” people who have been sleeping for a long time, and who otherwise would have little chance of awakening.

tags: comabrain implantsmonkeys
Previous post

Covid-19, AI indicates: Atazanavir, an anti-HIV, can fight the coronavirus

Next article

EZRaider, the “war” electric scooter tested by the Marines

Gianluca Riccio

Gianluca Riccio

Gianluca Riccio, born in 1975, is the creative director of an advertising agency, copywriter and journalist. He is affiliated with Italian Institute for the Future, World Future Society and H +, Network of Italian Transhumanists. Since 2006 he directs Futuroprossimo.it, the Italian resource of Futurology.

Maybe you are also interested in:

plant against dizziness
Medicine

An implant in the inner ear restores balance to those suffering from vertigo

A team reprograms the cartilage that produces its own anti-inflammatories
Medicine

A team reprograms the cartilage that produces its own anti-inflammatories

A Yale team repairs the spinal cord with patient stem cells
Medicine

A Yale team repairs the spinal cord with patient stem cells

Next article
EZRaider

EZRaider, the "war" electric scooter tested by the Marines

Climate crisis, a barrier in the North Sea against the level of the oceans

Climate crisis, a barrier in the North Sea against the level of the oceans

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Collaborate!

We are open to visions about the future. Submit an article, disclose the results of a search or scientific discoveries, shows points of view on a theme, tells about a change.

Contact us
The last
  • Wolverine, Alphabet's secret project to create superhuman hearingMarch 4 2021
    Alphabet's most pioneering company secretly develops a device that delivers superhuman and selective hearing. After the first rumors, we await developments.
  • Pesticide "ghosts" haunt organic crops for decadesMarch 4 2021
    As in a Dickens story, "the ghost of past pesticides" continues to haunt the fields, even those of organic farming.
  • An implant in the inner ear restores balance to those suffering from vertigoMarch 3 2021
    The modification of an existing implant allows a Johns Hopkins team to counteract vertigo in those suffering from bilateral vestibular hypofunction.

Most read of the week

  • M1, the huge 165-inch MicroLED TV vanishes into thin air when turned off

    M1, the huge 165-inch MicroLED TV vanishes into thin air when turned off

    63 shares
    Share 25 Tweet 16
  • Scientists levitate a plastic disc using only light

    63 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • World population growth will stop after centuries

    3130 shares
    Share 1252 Tweet 782
  • V90 Villa Edition, camper with terrace on the second floor

    226 shares
    Share 90 Tweet 56

Futuroprossimo.it is an Italian resource of futurology opened since 2006: every day news about the near future. Scientific discoveries, medical research, prototypes, concepts and predictions about the future for free.

Tag

Environment Architecture Communication concepts Advice Energy Events Gadgets The future of yesterday The newspaper of tomorrow Medicine Military Weather Robotica Society Spazio Technology transhumanism Transportation Video

Categories

The author

Gianluca Riccio, copywriter and journalist - Born in 1975, he is the creative director of an advertising agency, he is affiliated with the Italian Institute for the Future, World Future Society and H +, Network of Italian Transhumanists.

Collaborate! Are you interested in writing a post on Futuroprossimo? Click here for contacts.

Home / Author / IDEA / archive / Promo on FP

© 2020 Futuroprossimo - Tailored by Be Here

© 2020 Futuroprossimo - Tailored by Be Here

  • Home
  • Contact
  • archive
  • Technology
  • Medicine
  • Transportation
  • Weather
  • Society
  • Environment
  • transhumanism

© 2019 Futuroprossimo - Tailored by To be here

This site uses cookies. By continuing to read it, you consent to their use.