https://www.newscientist.com/article/2406255-brain-implant-could-ease-the-effects-of-a-traumatic-injury-years-later/
A device that was implanted into the brains of people with traumatic brain injuries substantially improved their cognitive function a year later, a small study suggests
Here is an awesome thing that's so cool it sounds unreal, and still the title is a massive lie. They performed one simple test better.
Awesome that this is even a possibility though
Also, if it was the same test, everyone does better on a test they've taken before. They should have also tested 6 regular people that never had tbi's to see how they compared.
Getting approval, though, let alone finding healthy volunteers who are willing to have experimental technology surgically implanted in their brains -- that seems problematic.
Not what I mean. I meant they tested the 6 people before and after who did have the implants and it showed improvement.
They should have tested a group of regular people two times as well, at the same time. Ones with no surgery before or after, to see if they also showed improvement in the testing.
Most everyone gets better at something the more times they do it. Even taking a test. If the control group also showed an 18% improvement the 2nd time taking the test, it would mean the implants didn't do anything.
It's science reporting and not immune to headline inflation, but it's not a lie to say there were measured improvements to patient cognition.
There's a developing consensus that electric stimulation has therapeutic potential in restoring brain function (from basal ganglion to transdermal stim). But if you want the full study findings here, I course this article because it looks the DOI address at the bottom.
Given how few (none) treatments they're are for TBIs right now, this is pretty exciting stuff to me at least.
Thalamic deep brain stimulation in traumatic brain injury: a phase 1, randomized feasibility study - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02638-4