Blog #4

Neurosurgeons have been using for the last 10 years a new technology that is a cure to Parkinson's and a number of other diseases. It involves surgically implanting an electrode deep in the brain that delivers jolts of electricity to create a brain stimulation. Although scientists still don't know exactly why or how it effects the brain they have done the surgery on over 75,000 patients. This new technology allows scientist to look at the brain as an electrochemical organ (using electromagnetic energy to function). The procedure requires surgery and the patient must be awake in order for the surgeon to know which location to place the electrode and the level of stimulation to reduce or completely diminish the patients symptoms. Scientist are still researching the mechanisms of the stimulation in order to further improve the procedure. This technology is a success and will continue to be used to treat such cases. In my opinion this technology is great and I hope scientist can continue to discover more about the effects of implanted sensors on the brain. I do have to disagree with the use of animals to test the procedure on, I find it somewhat cruel. Animals should not be used as test projects they should be protected and loved. Its amazing how our brain works and maybe once scientist learn to fully control the stimulants and understand the procedure better we can learn how to maybe awaken the 90% of our brain that is not used, maybe we can unlock a whole lot more that just cures. I enjoyed reading this article and hopefully this technology can further develop soon. A new system abbreviated WINCS has been developed by the Mayo Clinic physicians and has been developed to detect chemical activity in the brain. The electrode is surgically implanted in the brain and scientist are able to record and provide real accurate measurements of chemical levels in the brain. The goal of this is to help direct surgeons on where to place the electrode in the brain during deep brain stimulation so they are able to improve the outcomes of the procedure for the patient. This development with more research can be improved and with the collaboration of scientist, physicians, and engineers more and better of this technology can be accomplished for patients. The Mayo Clinic research was obviously in 2008 and the MIT Technology was in 2010 so you can see how far scientist have come. With the Mayo Clinic test were only being done on animals no humans had received the procedure and in only 2 years technology came so far by treating over 75,000 people. It is now 2014 and I wonder how much researchers have discovered today while studying this new technology and how far it will go in treating patients today. Our brains a much too complex and by research and technology we can on day understand more and more of how our brains work and provide all the clues to the chemistry of our kind.