The International Neuromodulation Society (INS) is currently assembling a meeting from today until december 7th. They will have poster presentations and scientific oral presentations. The scientists going to this meeting will talk about a variety of neuromodulation techniques that may be able to treat many brain based disorders. Future ways of neuromodulation may be able to treat brain injuries as well. You can read about the gathering at this press release. Here are some excerpts from the press release.
Stroke Rehabilitation. The idea that the adult brain can reorganize to restore normal function after sustaining trauma is well accepted, but the means to achieving such rehabilitation is still a work-in-progress. A recent clinical trial – EVEREST – tested the idea that directly stimulating the brain with electrical signals coupled with classical rehabilitation techniques may speed the recovery of movement. Dr. Robert Levy, a neurosurgeon at Northwestern University in Chicago,will report new analyses of the trial data which suggest that this approach may be successful in some, but not all, stroke victims.
New Technologies. A special session on novel neuromodulation therapies will explore the cutting edge of electrical and optical technologies for studying and altering pathological brain activity. These include advances in the use of light as a tool to alter neural activity, new uses of transcranial magnetic stimulation and the use of oscillating electric fields to regrow spinal nerves after injury. Dr Karl Deisseroth, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, will deliver the keynote address, reporting on his work to engineer light-reactive molecules into neural circuits to manipulate and study patterns of activity in model organisms.
