Earlier this week, KTVU-TV aired a segment highlighting Stanford scientists' ongoing research using deep-brain stimulation to control Parkinson's patients' tremors and record brain activity. A patient interviewed for the piece said the treatment "made a huge difference in my life" and called it "revolutionary." More from the piece:
The new stimulator nicknamed "brain radio" is developed by Medtronic and tested by [Stanford neurologist Helen Bronte-Stewart, MD, and colleagues.]
"We can for the first time record the neural activity in the brain directly from the deep brain stimulator in somebody's chest," she said.
...
Despite decades of research, doctors have only a sketchy ideas of how the brain works, but now using Medtronic's device they are for the first time opening a window into the human brain.
"I would think there will be developments that we don't really know about right now that will come from some of the things we find out as we do this research," said Bronte-Stewart.
