If we had anything not resembling our fucking failures of stroke associations they would be distributing this as stroke protocols to all stroke hospitals, neurologists and PMR doctors. But we don't so once again survivors are screwed.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=166923&CultureCode=en
Award honors outstanding contributions to the field of brain stimulation
Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and
medical information products and services, today announced that Dr.
Anthony T. Barker is the inaugural recipient of the International Brain
Stimulation Award. Dr. Barker is receiving this award for his pioneering
work in developing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a
noninvasive and pain-free method of stimulating specific brain areas.
The
International Brain Stimulation Award acknowledges outstanding
contributions to the field of brain stimulation. These contributions may
be in basic, translational, or clinical aspects of neuromodulation, and
must have had a profound influence in shaping this exciting and fast
growing field of neuroscience and medicine. The Senior Editors and
Deputy Editors of Brain Stimulation: Basic, Translational and Clinical
Research in Neuromodulation determine the awardee and will present the
award at the 2nd International Brain Stimulation Conference, March 5-8,
2017 in Barcelona, Spain.
Dr. Barker was born in Morley, Leeds,
UK in 1950 and he received his Bachelors in Engineering in 1971 from the
University of Sheffield, and obtained a PhD in there in 1976. From 1976
to 1990 he worked as a physicist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, and
had title of Lecturer at the University of Sheffield (1977-1999). Since
1999 he has been a Professor Associate at the University of Sheffield
and is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in the Department of Medical
Physics and Clinical Engineering at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital,
Sheffield, UK.
Dr. Barker first started his research on using
time-varying magnetic fields to induce current flow in tissue in order
to depolarize neurons. Prior to this effort, direct electrical
stimulation, with electrodes placed on the scalp (or other body part),
was the principle method used to induce neuronal depolarization.
However, this method had several flaws, and the high intensity of
electrical stimulation is often painful. Magnetic fields, in contract,
pass through the scalp and skull unimpeded, and give much more precise
results. In 1985, Drs. Barker, Jalinous, and Freeston reported the first
demonstration of TMS. Dr. Barker and colleagues produced twitching in a
specific area of the hand in human volunteers by applying TMS to the
motor cortex in the opposite hemisphere that controls movement of that
muscle. This demonstrated that TMS was capable of stimulating precise
area of brain and without the pain of electrical stimulation. Moreover,
they did this in awake alert human volunteers.
Today, TMS has
become a vital tool in neuroscience, since depending on stimulation
parameters, specific brain areas can either be excited or inhibited..
Thus, Dr. Barker's original demonstration of a noninvasive and pain-free
method of stimulating specific brain areas has evolved into a critical
tool in basic neuroscience investigation, in the study of brain
abnormalities in disease states, and in the treatment of a host of
neurological and psychiatric conditions. Since 1985, there have been
several thousand publications involving TMS.
"Every now and then
in science someone makes a discovery or invents a tool, or both, that
launches a revolution," commented Mark George, MD, Editor-in-Chief of
Brain Stimulation and Co-Chair of the 2nd International Brain
Stimulation Conference. "Dr. Tony Barker is that person in the field of
non-invasive brain stimulation. He built the first TMS devices that were
able to stimulate the brain in an awake adult focally and
non-invasively. This discovery has rippled forward creating an entire
field of researchers using TMS to understand how the brain works and to
use TMS to change the brain and treat diseases like depression. There
could be no better choice to receive this first most prestigious award."
Dr.
Harold A. Sackeim, Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology,
Columbia University and Founding Editor of Brain Stimulation added: "The
field of brain stimulation has exploded, with the development of
multiple techniques to physically and focally alter brain function. Dr.
Barker's invention of the first reliable method for TMS propelled the
field forward, providing the tools used in previously unimagined fields
of inquiry and therapeutics. His contribution resulted in vastly
increased knowledge about the workings of the brain and relief from
suffering in countless individuals."
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