Belgian researchers have developed a brainwave reading headset which requires no batteries, and no external power source, overcoming a powerful obstacle to using this type of technology for day to day assisted living for the disabled. Combine this assistive technology with a little 4G WiFi, predictive neuroscience, some useful computer software, perhaps a GPS tracking device attached to an iPhone controlled electric scooter/wheelchair or exoskeleton, and the human body is on track to become more of a simple brain house than a work horse. The possibilities are limitless.

A lightweight battery-free headset can continuously monitor human brainwaves, and is powered by body heat and sunlight.

The portable electroencephalogram (EEG) device resembles a set of headphones. It could provide wireless monitoring of patients at risk of seizures, have cars or other machinery respond to stressed users, or provide new ways to interact with computer games.

Researchers at the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC), in Belgium, created the headset.

Pinktentacle translates a cyborg project from Asahi into English for those of us who aren’t blessed with the ability to read Hiragana/Katakana…and what they’ve dug up is astonishing! Japanese researchers have been implanting electrodes for monitoring activities directly into subjects brains. Researchers have already applied with ethics committees to begin robotic testing and expect to have great success. Resistance is futile.

The researchers, who have filed a license application with the Osaka University Hospital ethics board, are working to enlist willing subjects already scheduled to have brain electrodes implanted for the purpose of monitoring epilepsy or other conditions. The procedure, which does not involve puncturing the cortex, places an electrode sheet at the central sulcus, a fold across the center of the brain near the primary motor cortex (which is responsible for planning and executing movements).

To date, the researchers have worked with four test subjects to record brain wave activity generated as they move their arms, elbows and fingers. Working with Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), the researchers have developed a method for analyzing the brain waves to determine the subject’s intended activity to an accuracy of greater than 80%. The next step is to use the data to control robot arms developed by the University of Tokyo’s Department of Precision Engineering.

The armed forces have long been innovators in the development and use of technology with many programs eventually having a trickledown effect into the lives of normal citizens. This phenomena has been seen in everything from air travel to ballpoint pens. The exoskeleton concept is nothing new to the community of people interested in mobility challenges, and the US Army appears to be on the fast track to getting something into production rather quickly. After a prototype is developed, deployed, and released we can expect to see civilian impact fairly quickly.

The lightweight aluminium exoskeleton, called XOS, senses Rex’s every move and instantly moves with him; it is almost like a shadow or a second skin. It is designed for agility that can match a human’s, but with strength and endurance that far outweigh our abilities.

With the exoskeleton on and fully powered up, Rex can easily pull down weight of more than 90 kilos, more than he weighs.

For the army the XOS could mean quicker supply lines, or fewer injuries when soldiers need to lift heavy weights or move objects around repeatedly. Initial models would be used as workhorses, on the logistics side.

Later models, the army hopes, could go into combat, carrying heavier weapons, or even wounded colleagues.

See the whole article for more information!

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified a process by which sections of nerves, such as those within the spinal cord, have what has been termed a ‘burst generator’ which controls rhythmic motions such as walking. This research, sadly only completed in medicinal leeches at print time, may lead to insights into treatment methodologies to help restore mobility in the future. Medical news today reports:

The study, headed by Joshua Puhl, Ph.D., and Karen Mesce, Ph.D., in the Departments of Entomology and Neuroscience, discovered it’s possible that the human nervous system - within each segment or region of spinal cord - may have its own “unit burst generator” to control rhythmic movements such as walking.

By studying a simpler model of locomotion, in the medicinal leech, the research shows where these unit burst generators reside and that each nerve cord segment has a complete generator. When a neuron fires, it sets off a chain reaction that gives rise to rhythmic movement. Once those circuits are turned on, the body essentially goes on autopilot.

In-Home Telerehabilitation for Quadriplegic Hand Function (SCI-IHT)

This study is currently recruiting participants.

Verified by University of Alberta, April 2008

Sponsors and Collaborators:
University of Alberta
International Spinal Research Trust
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research

Information provided by:
University of Alberta

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
NCT00656149

Purpose

1. To evaluate improvements in hand function in stable, cervical spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects treated with functional electrical stimulation (FES)-assisted exercise;
2. To compare the information obtained from existing qualitative and quantitative hand function tests with newly developed tests of sensorimotor performance.

Hypotheses:

1. the performance of tasks representative of activities of daily living (ADL) will improve with daily tele-supervised exercise of the affected hand.
2. The improvements will be greater in one exercise protocol than the other, the protocols being a) FES-assisted exercise on a workstation, b) cyclical FES, weight training and precision tasks.
3. Scores derived from quantitative data obtained from sensors on the workstation will correlate with the qualitative scores of the primary outcome measure, the ARAT hand function test.

Details and application information here.

Northwestern University researchers have developed a nano-engineered gel which enables severe spinal cord nerve fibers to regenerate and grow after injury. When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, after six weeks the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to use their hind legs and walk.

CHICAGO — A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation below the site of the injury because the damaged nerve fibers can’t regenerate. The nerve fibers or axons have the capacity to grow again, but don’t because they’re blocked by scar tissue that develops around the injury.

Northwestern University researchers have shown that a new nano-engineered gel inhibits the formation of scar tissue at the injury site and enables the severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate and grow. The gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord and self -assembles into a scaffold that supports the new nerve fibers as they grow up and down the spinal cord, penetrating the site of the injury.

When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, after six weeks the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to use their hind legs and walk.

The research is published today in the April 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

“We are very excited about this,” said lead author John Kessler, M.D., Davee Professor of Stem Cell Biology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “We can inject this without damaging the tissue. It has great potential for treating human beings.”

Kessler stressed caution, however, in interpreting the results. “It’s important to understand that something that works in mice will not necessarily work in human beings. At this point in time we have no information about whether this would work in human beings.”

“There is no magic bullet or one single thing that solves the spinal cord injury, but this gives us a brand new technology to be able to think about treating this disorder,” said Kessler, also the chair of the Davee Department of Neurology at the Feinberg School. “It could be used in combination with other technologies including stem cells, drugs or other kinds of interventions.”

“We designed our self-assembling nanostructures — the building blocks of the gel — to promote neuron growth,” said co-author Samuel I. Stupp, Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine and director of Northwestern’s Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine. “To actually see the regeneration of axons in the spinal cord after injury is a fascinating outcome.”

The nano-engineered gel works in several ways to support the regeneration of spinal cord nerve fibers. In addition to reducing the formation of scar tissue, it also instructs the stem cells –which would normally form scar tissue — to instead to produce a helpful new cell that makes myelin. Myelin is a substance that sheaths the axons of the spinal cord to permit the rapid transmission of nerve impulses.

The gel’s scaffolding also supports the growth of the axons in two critical directions — up the spinal cord to the brain (the sensory axons) and down to the legs (the motor axons.) “Not everybody realizes you have to grow the fibers up the spinal cord so you can feel where the floor is. If you can’t feel where the floor is with your feet, you can’t walk,” Kessler said.

Now Northwestern researchers are working on developing the nano-engineered gel to be acceptable as a pharmaceutical for the Food & Drug Administration.

If the gel is approved for humans, a clinical trial could begin in several years.

“It’s a long way from helping a rodent to walk again and helping a human being walk again,” Kessler stressed again. “People should never lose sight of that. But this is still exciting because it gives us a new technology for treating spinal cord injury.”

Contact: Marla Paul
Marla-Paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
Promising new nanotechnology for spinal cord injury

Courtesy Eurekalert

Insurers should think twice about providing longterm mental healthcare to spinal cord injury victims. Typically mental health services are available only in a limited capacity under many insurance programs, capping our earlier, and with a different payment schedule than standard medical treatment. However, a study sponsored by Informa healthcare indicates that nearly half (48.5%) of the population with spinal cord injury suffered mental health problems of depression (37%), anxiety (30%), clinical-level stress (25%) or post-traumatic stress disorder (8.4%).

We reported on the exoskeleton yesterday, but today it appears that one doctor is pooh-poohing that idea in favor of an implantable device which will restore mobility.

Newswise — Dr. Richard Stein, a professor emeritus in the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, has been named the 2007 recipient of the Barbara Turnbull Award for Spinal Cord Research. The $50,000 prize is presented annually to the top ranked spinal cord researcher identified through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s (CIHR) investigator-initiated grants competition.

Stein receives the award after more than 40 years working as a neuroscientist in the field of physiology and studying ways to help people with spinal cord injuries improve their ability to move. In the early 1990s, Stein began work that led to the creation of the WalkAide System, an electrical stimulation device that today helps thousands of people who have difficulty walking due to any number of central nervous system disorders.

Stein’s latest CIHR-funded research is even more ambitious than the WalkAide project. In collaboration with colleagues in the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Stein is working to develop an Intra Spinal Micro Stimulation (ISMS) device that may be placed on the spinal cord of a paralyzed person to help them walk. But unlike the few ISMS devices that already exist, the tool Stein is working to create will also record sensory feedback coming from the muscles and nerves in the legs and hips.

“I think what we are doing—trying to produce a closed loop control system using neural stimulation and recording it—is unique in the world,” Stein said. “And we’re extremely grateful to the sponsors of this award in helping us create a tool that we hope will one day make a positive difference in the lives of many paralyzed people.”

“For the past four decades Dr. Stein has grown to become a world leader in the field of spinal cord research, and we applaud his work and look forward to the results of his current research,” said Barbara Turnbull.

“Through his excellent and innovative work, Dr. Stein has already helped thousands of people affected with spinal cord injuries. This award will allow him to continue research to give a better life to those paralyzed,” said Dr. Rémi Quirion, Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction. “This is a brilliant example of research changing people’s lives”.

“Dr. Stein served as a Director of NeuroScience Canada and a member of our Science Advisory Council from 1998 until 2007, when he was named an Honorary Director. We are very proud to be associated with such an accomplished and passionate scientist, who has made major contributions to the field of neuroscience to benefit people with central nervous system disorders. Dr. Stein is most deserving of this recognition, and we continue to wish him every success with his important research,” said Inez Jabalpurwala, President of NeuroScience Canada.

Barbara Turnbull is a well known Toronto journalist and research activist who was shot and paralyzed from the neck down during a convenience store robbery when she was 18.

The Barbara Turnbull Award for Spinal Cord Research was established in 2001 to raise awareness of the more than four million Canadians who are afflicted with neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. The award is administered through a partnership among the Barbara Turnbull Foundation, the NeuroScience Canada Foundation, and the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction.

Public release date: 2-Apr-2008
Contact: Marla Paul
Marla-Paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University

CHICAGO — A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation below the site of the injury because the damaged nerve fibers can’t regenerate. The nerve fibers or axons have the capacity to grow again, but don’t because they’re blocked by scar tissue that develops around the injury.

Northwestern University researchers have shown that a new nano-engineered gel inhibits the formation of scar tissue at the injury site and enables the severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate and grow. The gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord and self -assembles into a scaffold that supports the new nerve fibers as they grow up and down the spinal cord, penetrating the site of the injury.

When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, after six weeks the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to use their hind legs and walk.

The research is published today in the April 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

“We are very excited about this,” said lead author John Kessler, M.D., Davee Professor of Stem Cell Biology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “We can inject this without damaging the tissue. It has great potential for treating human beings.”

Kessler stressed caution, however, in interpreting the results. “It’s important to understand that something that works in mice will not necessarily work in human beings. At this point in time we have no information about whether this would work in human beings.”

“There is no magic bullet or one single thing that solves the spinal cord injury, but this gives us a brand new technology to be able to think about treating this disorder,” said Kessler, also the chair of the Davee Department of Neurology at the Feinberg School. “It could be used in combination with other technologies including stem cells, drugs or other kinds of interventions.”

“We designed our self-assembling nanostructures — the building blocks of the gel — to promote neuron growth,” said co-author Samuel I. Stupp, Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine and director of Northwestern’s Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine. “To actually see the regeneration of axons in the spinal cord after injury is a fascinating outcome.”

The nano-engineered gel works in several ways to support the regeneration of spinal cord nerve fibers. In addition to reducing the formation of scar tissue, it also instructs the stem cells –which would normally form scar tissue — to instead to produce a helpful new cell that makes myelin. Myelin is a substance that sheaths the axons of the spinal cord to permit the rapid transmission of nerve impulses.

The gel’s scaffolding also supports the growth of the axons in two critical directions — up the spinal cord to the brain (the sensory axons) and down to the legs (the motor axons.) “Not everybody realizes you have to grow the fibers up the spinal cord so you can feel where the floor is. If you can’t feel where the floor is with your feet, you can’t walk,” Kessler said.

Now Northwestern researchers are working on developing the nano-engineered gel to be acceptable as a pharmaceutical for the Food & Drug Administration.

If the gel is approved for humans, a clinical trial could begin in several years.

“It’s a long way from helping a rodent to walk again and helping a human being walk again,” Kessler stressed again. “People should never lose sight of that. But this is still exciting because it gives us a new technology for treating spinal cord injury.”

An Action Medical Research funded project, based at the Cambridge University Centre for Brain Repair, is on the brink of a major potential breakthrough in the repair of spinal cord injuries.The charity, which only funds the very best in cutting edge research, has said that the ground-breaking work may bring new hope to sufferers.Spinal cord injuries are a major cause of disability — in the UK there are more than 40,000(1) people suffering from injuries to their spine, which can take the form of anything from loss of sensation to full paralysis.

Cord injury is incredibly distressing for both the patient and their family because there is no cure — active lives can be turned upside down overnight. It is especially tragic because, cruelly, the average age at the time of injury is just 19.

Until now, despite the attempts of many scientists to find a cure, the problem facing neurologists has been that the body simply cannot repair damage to the brain or spinal cord.

Although it is possible for nerves to regenerate, they are blocked by the scar tissue that forms at the site of the spinal injury.

However, Professor James Fawcett’s Cambridge based team believes it is close to a clinical treatment that could allow nerve fibres to regenerate within the spinal cord and also encourage remaining nerve fibres to work more effectively.

This revolutionary discovery may ultimately mean treatments to improve the lives of people paralysed through spinal damage.

The Action Medical Research team has found that a bacterial enzyme called chondroitinase is capable of digesting molecules within scar tissue to allow some nerve fibres to regrow.

Excitingly it also promotes something called nerve plasticity. This means that any remaining undamaged nerve fibres have an increased likelihood of making new connections that could bypass the area of damage.

Recent work by Professor Fawcett’s team has found that using chondroitinase in conjunction with rehabilitation allows greater opportunity for nerve recovery than by using either technique alone. This is an important finding, because it shows that the treatment can open up a window of opportunity during which rehabilitation can be much more effective. The finding will probably also be important for rehabilitation after stroke and brain injury.

This ground-breaking discovery will need to be tested before it can be given to patients, to establish the optimum time for it to be administered.

Professor Fawcett said, “It is rare to find that a spinal cord is completely severed, generally there are still some nerve fibres that are undamaged.

“Chondroitinase offers us hope in two ways; firstly it allows some nerve fibres to regenerate and secondly it enables other nerves to take on the role of those fibres that cannot be repaired.

“Scientists have worked hard to produce treatments for paralysed patients with spinal injuries for many years, but it has proven extremely complicated.

Clinical trials have not yet been started, but the treatment is under pre-clinical development by Acorda Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in New York.

“Along with rehabilitation we are very hopeful that at last we may be able to offer paralysed patients a treatment to improve their condition.”

Dr Yolande Harley of Action Medical Research said, “The charity is proud to be at the forefront of medical advance thanks to brilliant researchers like Professor Fawcett.

“His work will give new hope to people with recent spinal injuries.

“Today the emphasis is on providing the best possible care and occupational therapy but eventually we hope to have a clinical treatment that will help to improve the underlying injury that is causing the patient’s loss of mobility or sensation.

“This is incredibly exciting, ground-breaking work and is truly innovative research from the very best in the field.”

1. The Spinal Injuries Association Annual Report 2003/4 states an estimation of 40,000 UK sufferers

Professor Fawcett’s paper Therapeutic time window for the application of chondroitinase ABC after spinal cord injury has been published online by Experimental Neurology. A copy is available on request.

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