WA and French researchers stimulate brain
A therapy using magnetic pulses to stimulate the brain to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy and stroke is now is being tested by researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France.
A therapy using magnetic pulses to stimulate the brain to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy and stroke is now is being tested by researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France.
Research associate professor, Jennifer Rodger, from UWA’s School of Animal Biology, said she and her team tested the therapy – known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) – on mice to determine how it could be applied to treating human neurological disorders.
Published in the journal Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the study demonstrates how “pulsed magnetic fields promote changes in brain chemicals.
“[These changes] in brain chemicals correct abnormal brain connections, resulting in improved behaviour and brain function,” Professor Rodger said.
“This therapy has shown promising results in treating the damaged human brain. Our research helps to explain how this therapy works on the cells of the brain. Previously, evidence of its usefulness was mainly from anecdotal clinical evidence,” she added.
Increasing researchers’ understanding of brain function, Dr Rodger explained the structural and functional changes caused by the therapy in malfunctioning circuits were not seen in the normal healthy brain, suggesting the therapy could have minimal side effects in humans.
