Project Summary/Abstract This proposal responds to RFA-MH-17-245, which requests applications focusing on the mechanisms and dose- response relationships of noninvasive neuromodulatory methods.
PROJECT SUMMARY Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has had great impact, helping patients with disorders such as Parkinson's disease and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and with great potential for other disorders such as depression and Alzheimer's disease. DBS, being a surgical procedure, bears the potential for complications that limit its deployment and adoption.
Project Abstract One of the major goals of the BRAIN initiative is to develop technologies capable of interfacing with specific neural circuits in the human brain.
Project Summary A novel technique called transcranial current stimulation (TCS) creates small electrical fields in the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp. As a method for neuromodulation, TCS carries with it many practical benefits: it is portable (battery-operated), inexpensive, and easily deployable in the clinic and at home. Due to this simplicity and apparent versatility there has been an explosion in the number of studies currently underway using either direct or alternating transcranial currents (over 500 clinical trials are listed with clinicaltrials.gov).
Project Summary/Abstract Memory impairment occurs in a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., depression and schizophrenia) and in many neurologic disorders (e.g., neurodegenerative disease and brain injury), often with devastating consequences for life quality. The goal of this project is to determine optimal dosing parameters for a new procedure involving the noninvasive enhancement of human hippocampal-cortical brain networks that critically support memory.
1. Project Summary/Abstract Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains the gold-standard treatment for patients with depressive episodes. During a typical four-week ECT series, most depressive episodes remit, and formerly suicidal or psychotically depressed patients will resume their premorbid levels of functioning. Independent of the antidepressant effect of ECT, many patients experience debilitating but transient cognitive effects such as attention and memory def- icits.
ABSTRACT Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an emerging technology for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric illnesses. Recent interest has shifted to the cerebellum, where initial promising therapeutic investigations have been made disease such as schizophrenia and ataxia. Despite these developments, the understanding of which parameters are best suited to stimulate the cerebellum remains a mystery.
ABSTRACT Stroke is the leading cause of disability in the United States, with approximately 700,000 new cases per year. Disability from upper limb impairment depends primarily on loss of hand function and finger dexterity. Despite advances in task-specific training for the upper limb, a large number of stroke patients do not regain full function of their hand. Somatosensory peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) is a promising approach to target recovery of hand motor function in stroke patients.
Research investigating the use of noninvasive electrical stimulation (e.g., transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)), for neurologic and psychiatric disorders has provided compelling evidence that such stimulation can modulate behavior and cognition, and even facilitate recovery of function after focal brain injury, with effects typically outlasting the stimulation period.
Abstract Micro-magnetic stimulation (μMS) is an emerging technology with a great promise to revolutionize therapeutic stimulation of human nervous system. Originally developed to stimulation single neurons, μMS uses ultra- conductive neuron-size coils that are capable of carrying current pulses large enough to elicit neural activation by means of magnetic induction.
