Heaven forbid we use anything from Russia, you wouldn't want communist pinko therapy to be used on your body. I wonder how different this is from tDCS?
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=22688&CultureCode=en
In Trondheim (Norway), clinical trials started for the brain
microstimulation method for rehabilitation of patients who survived the
stroke. Professor Yuri Kropotov, head of laboratory of action
programming neurobiology (Institute of the Human Brain, Russian Academy
of Sciences, St. Petersburg), was assigned the project manager. Why?
Because the method – its full name being the transcranial
micropolarization method – is the development by Russian researchers,
specialists of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Russian Academy
of Medical Sciences, and the Institute of the Human Brain, Russian
Academy of Sciences.
“The transcranial micropolarization method was invented back in the
70-80s of the last century, but at that time it was not wide spread
either in Russia, or abroad, says Yu.D. Kropotov. However, after
insistent publications in scientific editions both by Russian and
foreign authors, physicians became interested in this method.”
The stroke consequences are manifold: besides movement and speech
disorders, patients’ perception suffers, particularly visual perception
and attention. For example, there occurs a state when visual stimuli on
the right side or, more often, on the left side are not perceived (the
side depends on the brain damage location). A person as if does not pay
attention to a visual image, he/she does not perceive it. “The disorders
are as a rule observed in the right parietal region of brain and are
connected with the channel, through which goes visual information
responding to the question where the object is located, explains Yu.D.
Kropotov. Certain information simply does not get into the brain, and
the person does not see the object.”
To localize such disorders, activity of various brain zones should
be measured and locations of decreased activity should be identified.
Any action by a person, even the simplest one, requires participation of
various brain structures. For example, crossing the street at the green
light activates primary regions of visual cortex, connected with
object’s feature extraction (such as color and orientation), then
temporal cortex regions are involved, connected with recognition of
images and attaching sense to them, then signals are transmitted to the
prefrontal cortex regions connected with movement initiation. All these
processes are reflected in the so-called cerebral evoked potentials -
electric oscillation of a definite form. Evoked potentials reflect
information processing processes, to evoke them, certain tests are used.
For example, in such a test the person under consideration is
presented two kinds of stimuli: the person is to react to one of them
by, for example, pressing a button, and he/she should not react to
others.
After the brain zones of decreased activity have been determined,
they should be affected in a proper way. To this end, these zone are
stimulated transcranially (via the cranium) with the help of
microcurrent fed through skin electrodes. Electrodes are applied to
respective regions of head, the electrodes being under direct voltage,
through which microcurrent goes (current strength being up to 500
microamperes). Microcurrent causes changes to membrane potential of
brain cells and normalizes their work. The method got approval in Russia
– more than a thousand patients have already received such course of
rehabilitation. Norwegian specialists on rehabilitation medicine have
now got the Ethical commission’s permission for carrying out the
investigation. “A small group of patients who survived a stroke has
already been selected, and we are waiting for the first results in four
months, says Yu.D. Kropotov. In the course of exposure, the researchers
will watch over the patient’s state in the real time mode.”
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