Brain pacemaker brings epileptics hope
A WIRELESS “pacemaker for the brain” could offer new treatment for neurological disorders such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s, researchers claimed yesterday.
Scientists say it works like a heart pacemaker, monitoring the brain’s electrical activity and delivering electrical stimulation if it detects something amiss.
Developed by US engineers, the Wireless Artifact-free Neuromodulation Device (Wand) can listen to and stimulate electric current in the brain.
Similar “deep brain stimulators” are currently able to prevent debilitating seizures in patients.
But it can take years to find the right frequency of stimulation needed.
However, the Wand is both wireless and autonomous, meaning that once it learns to recognise the signs of tremor or seizure, it can adjust the stimulation on its own to prevent the unwanted movements.
Doctor Rikky Muller, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the THIRTY-nine partygoers were arrested yesterday on suspicion of attempted murder after a man was stabbed.
The victim, in his 30s, was left fighting for his life following a row over queuing in a newsagents.
He was chased down the street by a gang of male and female teenagers and knifed in the chest. The suspects are thought to have fled into a nearby house where a party was taking place.
Police detained everyone at the party after they refused to co-operate with the investigation.
Witnesses told how youngsters were led out of the property and lined up in handcuffs in the aftermath.
They were described as aged between 16 and 20 and were held at separate police stations.
Two knives were recovered from the scene and were last night being examined by forensic experts.
The attack happened shortly before 1am yesterday after the row erupted in Hammersmith, west London.
A witness said the argument broke out over one member of the group “pushing into the queue”.
The woman told how the victim was left lying in a pool of blood after being knifed “right next to his heart”.
She heard one of the gang shout “get him, get him”. She also heard a woman say: “Oh no, don’t do it.”
Extreme
The witness said: “Whoever that girl was, she’s probably the only one with sense there. All of a sudden, all of them in a rush ran in to the flat together.
“As I got to the corner I saw a guy on the floor and he had been stabbed right in the centre of his chest.
“I started crying. I just couldn’t believe there was just one man on his own and there were 30 of them.
“I can’t believe what brings people to this. Where were these children’s parents? Why are their parents not worried that their children are out doing things like this?”
Graphic designer Mason El Hage, 23, said the partygoers were arrested in “single file” in a “very, very swift operation” before being lined up against a wall.
He said: “They brought out about 30 to 40 people and were interrogating them for around an hour.
“It was very extreme in terms numbers of people involved.”
Last night the crime scene remained sealed off as investigations continued.
Superintendent Mark Lawrence of Scotland Yard said: “What appears to have been a minor argument has resulted in a man sustaining lifethreatening injuries.
“While it is unusual for so many people to be arrested in the early stages of University of California, Berkeley, said: “Finding the right therapy for a patient is extremely costly and can take years. A significant reduction in both cost and duration can potentially lead to greatly improved outcomes.”
The researchers said simultaneously stimulating and recording electrical signals in the brain is much like trying to see
small ripples in a pond while also splashing your feet.
This is because electrical signals from the brain can be overwhelmed by the large pulses of electricity created by the stimulation itself.
Current brain stimulators either stop recording while delivering the electrical stimulation, or record at a different part of the brain.
But the Wand is able to of an investigation such as this, due to a lack of co-operation and the necessity of securing essential evidence following a serious assault, this action was appropriate.”
In October it was revealed that knife crime in London had risen to its highest ever level with nearly 15,000 offences committed in a year.
The Office for National Statistics said the total of 14,987 crimes between the summers of 2017 and 2018 was a 15 per cent rise on the comparable figure 12 months earlier. Graphic showing an implanted Wand device for the brain and, right, what the hi-tech implant looks like in real life. The device is designed to recognise the signs of seizure in patients
differentiate between the subtle brain waves and strong electrical pulses. And it can record electrical activity from 128 points in the brain, compared with eight channels in similar systems.
Dr Muller explained: “Because we can stimulate and record in the same brain region, we know exactly what is happening when we are providing a therapy.” Dr Samantha Santacruz, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Texas, said:
“It is very important to both perform neural recordings and stimulation simultaneously, which currently no single commercial device does.”
The findings were published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.