Experimental device stimulates the tongue to improve stroke survivors’ balance

Pretty cool, where can I buy it?
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/experimental-device-stimulates-the-tongue-to-improve-stroke-survivors-balance/news-story/749d2445f440f30414e9be79e161242d

Lucie van den Berg, Medical reporter, Herald Sun

October 15, 2017 8:44am

Subscriber only

AN experimental device that stimulates the brain with electrical currents via nerves in the tongue has been used to improve balance in stroke survivors for the first time.

Patients in the small Royal Melbourne Hospital pilot study used the device, which feels like having a fizzy drink in the mouth, while undertaking intensive rehabilitation ­exercises.
The hospital’s director of rehabilitation, Professor Fary Khan, said stroke was a leading cause of disability in Australian adults.
Rehabilitation helps them relearn lost abilities by taking advantage of the brain’s neuroplasticity — its ability to reorganise itself and form new pathways.
“There has been a lot of focus on trying to enhance the neuroplasticity of the brain by stimulating it,” said academic director of the Australian Rehabilitation Research Centre at the hospital, Professor Mary Galea.

Unlike other techniques that use magnetic and electrical stimulation via the head, this device from the US targets two cranial nerves running from the tongue to the brain.
The trigeminal and facial nerves are involved with chewing and facial expression, but they are close to nerve cells in the brain crucial to walking and balance.
“The device modulates the excitability of the circulation of the brain, enhancing or dampening it,” Prof Galea said.
It is believed that this technique improves the learning process when combined with repetitive targeted exercise.
In the pilot study, the 10 stroke victims had intensive rehabilitation, but half of the group also used the device.
“Adding this stimulation did improve people’s balance more than just physiotherapy by itself,” Prof Galea said.

There were no adverse events and the device was able to be integrated into the rehabilitation program.
Limitations of the study include that the patients were only followed for two weeks and that the sample size was small.
Professors Khan and Galea — both also of the University of Melbourne — said the findings of the trial, which was funded by a philanthropic ­don­ation, should prompt a larger randomised control study.
“Our results are very interesting and point to its potential in stroke patients, but we need larger and longer trials,” Prof Galea said.
Currently, the device is not approved or available for use in patients anywhere in the world.
The findings were published in the journal, Brain Stimulation.
Lucie.vandenberg@news.com.au