Parkinsons therapy

[Peikko 1,575]

Incredible what people come up with!

Link

The idea of using spinal cord stimulation to treat Parkinson’s disease, however, is entirely new, Dr. Rezai said, and he called it both “provocative” and “fascinating,” though further research was needed on how it would work in practice.

[HAL 9000 96]

I like the idea, but this won't stop the neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra.

I suspect lots of modification to the stimulating electrodes will be necessary to modulate appropriate motile movements and take into account the differences in spinal cord anatomy.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I like the idea, but this won't stop the neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra.

I suspect lots of modification to the stimulating electrodes will be necessary to modulate appropriate motile movements and take into account the differences in spinal cord anatomy.

Translation, please?

[HAL 9000 96]

I like the idea, but this won't stop the neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra.

I suspect lots of modification to the stimulating electrodes will be necessary to modulate appropriate motile movements and take into account the differences in spinal cord anatomy.

Translation, please?

Imagine something like this:

The electrical pulses would have to follow a physiological and anatomical pattern that respected established electrical outflow activity from the motor cortex. We already have a really good idea of where one could place electrodes in cortex to bypass the control regulation of the basal ganglia. Parkinsons is so bad because it destroys the motor part of the basal ganglia and you see the rigidity and out of control movements associated with the disease.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I like the idea, but this won't stop the neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra.

I suspect lots of modification to the stimulating electrodes will be necessary to modulate appropriate motile movements and take into account the differences in spinal cord anatomy.

Translation, please?

Imagine something like this:

The electrical pulses would have to follow a physiological and anatomical pattern that respected established electrical outflow activity from the motor cortex. We already have a really good idea of where one could place electrodes in cortex to bypass the control regulation of the basal ganglia. Parkinsons is so bad because it destroys the motor part of the basal ganglia and you see the rigidity and out of control movements associated with the disease.

Are the pulses negating undesired motor activity, or, are they stimulating desired motor activity, or both?

[HAL 9000 96]

I like the idea, but this won't stop the neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra.

I suspect lots of modification to the stimulating electrodes will be necessary to modulate appropriate motile movements and take into account the differences in spinal cord anatomy.

Translation, please?

Imagine something like this:

The electrical pulses would have to follow a physiological and anatomical pattern that respected established electrical outflow activity from the motor cortex. We already have a really good idea of where one could place electrodes in cortex to bypass the control regulation of the basal ganglia. Parkinsons is so bad because it destroys the motor part of the basal ganglia and you see the rigidity and out of control movements associated with the disease.

Are the pulses negating undesired motor activity, or, are they stimulating desired motor activity, or both?

Well, the circuitry indeed is supposed to flow in stimulatory and inhibitory directions. This actually gets divided into two separate pathway loops, too. In order to have proper feedback control, you'd need to be able to do both, IMO.

For something a little bit more global:

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Too bad so much information has to travel over such a convoluted pathway to get the necesssary feedback. In hydraulic controls, you can stategically place reostats and microswitches, along with infinite control valves, to localize many of the feedback functions. You wonder if microprocessors placed along the anatomy could do the same thing. That was what I was seeing in your original illustration.

[HAL 9000 96]

Yeah... at the level of the spinal cord you are technically looking at a literal stimulation of excitatory nerve fibers. At least in the motor system (nerve to muscle) that's what the business is all about. But at the central zones... its amazing how many regulatory steps and integrations of nervous impulses you have to witness in order to produce motor displacement.

Sometimes I used to think that these pathways were a bit odd in their design but when you look at it in evolution its pretty sophisticated. Too bad we are susceptible to genetic and environmental problems that can destroy the circuitry like the different kinds of Parkinsons are several of more possible outcomes.

Its not just movement generation and control (inhibition/stimulation), but its also keeping that generation balanced along the body's axis of symmetry for proper posture.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Yeah... at the level of the spinal cord you are technically looking at a literal stimulation of excitatory nerve fibers. At least in the motor system (nerve to muscle) that's what the business is all about. But at the central zones... its amazing how many regulatory steps and integrations of nervous impulses you have to witness in order to produce motor displacement.

Sometimes I used to think that these pathways were a bit odd in their design but when you look at it in evolution its pretty sophisticated. Too bad we are susceptible to genetic and environmental problems that can destroy the circuitry like the different kinds of Parkinsons are several of more possible outcomes.

Its not just movement generation and control (inhibition/stimulation), but its also keeping that generation balanced along the body's axis of symmetry for proper posture.

I suppose a good part of that has to do with the brain's evolution, where vestigule structures control lower functions. We don't have just one brain, but a collection of brains, built one upon another. It is amazing that it works at all.

[HAL 9000 96]

Yeah... at the level of the spinal cord you are technically looking at a literal stimulation of excitatory nerve fibers. At least in the motor system (nerve to muscle) that's what the business is all about. But at the central zones... its amazing how many regulatory steps and integrations of nervous impulses you have to witness in order to produce motor displacement.

Sometimes I used to think that these pathways were a bit odd in their design but when you look at it in evolution its pretty sophisticated. Too bad we are susceptible to genetic and environmental problems that can destroy the circuitry like the different kinds of Parkinsons are several of more possible outcomes.

Its not just movement generation and control (inhibition/stimulation), but its also keeping that generation balanced along the body's axis of symmetry for proper posture.

I suppose a good part of that has to do with the brain's evolution, where vestigule structures control lower functions. We don't have just one brain, but a collection of brains, built one upon another. It is amazing that it works at all.

Exactly!

That is current neuroevolutionary theory.

You can't insult someone by calling them 'birdbrain' much more, since bird brains actually have organizations in nuclear structures that over time have become layered structures as in mammals. For centralized and space-saving reasons, modern brains have evolved both types of structures across the board in our super family of species.

Even though 'lower functions' is a bit of a misnomer. Physiology is what is is... with higher function being pretty much just the ability to store memory and execute learning and thought.