NIH BRAIN Initiative-funded research is key to FDA approval of personalized DBS for Parkinson’s
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been used for decades to treat Parkinson’s disease in people who no longer benefit from medications meant to restore levels of the brain chemical dopamine that drives this condition. And although DBS has helped people living with the uncontrollable body movements typical of Parkinson’s, many people have limited benefit and experience side effects.
This funding opportunity supports the development or application of innovative tools and approaches to advance our understanding of behavior as a complex dynamic system.
Late in 2023, two research groups accomplished an amazing feat. Using a brain–computer interface, they provided speech to two individuals who had lost the ability to communicate due to paralysis or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Both studies described “brain-to-speech” neuroprostheses capable of converting a person’s thoughts into speech at over 60 words per minute with an error rate of 25%, albeit with vocabularies of limited sizes.
The NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award has been reissued and an accompanying open house webinar resource is readily available.
