If this works we may finally understand where functionality of dead areas goes to as it recovers. And we might then make repeatable therapy protocols.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=142245&CultureCode=en
Monitoring the rehabilitation of patients with neurological damage
caused by a stroke, has encouraged Mexican scientists to work in the
design and manufacture of a functional infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS -FD )
instrument capable of identifying the affected areas of the brain and
the sites that were activated while analyzing the oxygen content in
blood flow during therapy.
"It's a device consisting of a headband or helmet equipped with
emitters and light detectors, oximeter (to measures oxygen levels), a
monitor and software. Its operation is based on infrared light, which
passes through the scalp to the skull leather and displays and
“interrogates” brain activity in order to obtain information on cell
metabolism, alterations in blood flow and amount of oxygen," explains
Carlos Gerardo Treviño Palacios, researcher at the National Institute of
Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE) in Mexico.
He highlights that so far they are ending the development of an
oximeter and software to display images. Also, they analyze information
that will be provided to the base hardware and detectors, and work in
the construction helmet. This will not only help rehabilitate patients,
but will create a map of the brain to detect which parts are replacing
areas that died in the motor cortex after stroke and watch how the body
relearns with the help of rehabilitation.
"The aim is to build a non-invasive imaging system to avoid secluding
the patient into a box camera during the shooting of brain
“photography” with the limitations of the procedure , as happens with an
MRI," says Treviño Palacios.
He notes that although the latter method also measures the
concentration of oxygen, infrared spectroscopy despite having a lower
resolution does not require the patient to lie still and requires only
the use of a helmet, allowing the physician to observe brain activity
and progress while continuing the patient’s rehabilitation therapy.
Additional advantages are system portability and low cost.
"In parallel, we are looking for a fast optical signal, ie, a series
of changes that occur a few milliseconds before the neuron is active in
the images, which shows the action potential of the nerve cell," says
the researcher at INAOE.
This project is jointly implemented by INAOE and the National
Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery of the Mexican Ministry of
Health, where collaboration comes naturally to raise an investigation
into an imaging modality based on the interaction of light with matter,
after a previous collaboration where a rehabilitation therapy system was
developed.
"The particular characteristics of the optical imaging system make it
a unique tool in certain problems where the in-vivo and in- situ
neuroimaging is required noninvasively and continuously for long periods
of time. This is the case of the study of brain plasticity in patients
going through motor rehabilitation, which should be monitored while
practicing neuro-rehabilitation exercises during therapy sessions that
can last from 45 minutes to an hour ," says Treviño Palacios. (Agencia
ID)
I would like to wear this helmet when I do my Saeboflex exercises.
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