Mirror Images May Assist the Brain During Rehab
The Heart and Stroke Foundation reports from this year’s World Stroke Congress that using a mirror during therapy may support the brain’s efforts to recover from stroke.
Japanese research shows that a mirror placed between the legs of patients during rehab exercise helped increase the speed of leg-lifting activity up to 12%. They suggest that the mirror image may “trick” the mind in some way, helping to support physical recovery. (Story)
Brain Interface Making Speech Recovery Possible
Erik Ramsey suffered a brain stem stroke nine years ago, leaving him almost totally paralyzed. But thanks to an implanted electrode, some software and a collaboration, Erik is learning to talk again. The software interprets signals from Erik’s brain to his vocal tract as he attempts to make sounds, translating his thoughts into sounds. He can hear his voice in real time, providing him feedback on his pronunciation, helping him to hone his speaking skills. According to an article in New Scientist, over the course of just a few weeks he improved his speech accuracy from 45% to 80%.
The “brain interface” is collaboration between a Georgia company, Neural Signals and a research team at Boston University. It currently works best with vowel sounds, and improvements are needed to better articulate consonants as they require more coordination of the body’s vocal system.
Early and Frequent Mobility Keeps Depression at Bay for Stoke Patients
Post stroke depression is a major concern to patient and family, but it also is associated with less participation in therapy and a poorer rate of recovery.
Dr. Toby B. Cumming at the National Stoke Research Institute in Australia tested the impact of early mobilization on stroke patients. On average their study group was up and mobilizing within 18 hours after the stroke (the standard care group wasn’t mobile until after 30 hours). The early results of Dr. Cumming’s study shows that increased physical activity in the days immediately after a stroke has a positive effect on patient’s general mood, leading to more effective rehabilitation and recovery. (Reuter’s story)
Understanding “Spreading Depression” in Brain Neurology Key to TBI Treatment
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are leading a $2 million research project, focusing on a brain injury phenomenon called “spreading depression.” Spreading depressions are electrical failures in the brain’s neural network activity that spread beyond the initial injury site to other parts of the brain. As many as 60% of brain injury patients experience this phenomenon.
Researchers are trying to determine over how long a period spreading depression continues after injury. This is key information for early brain injury treatment because as these electrical disruptions spread, they cause increased tissue death or damage due to of the loss of blood and oxygen to those affected areas. Understanding spreading depression will help in developing early TBI treatment.
The research is being funded by the U.S. Department of Defense as a large number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are being afflicted by brain injury. (Story) The DOD has also recently awarded a $60 million grant to the University of California, San Diego to study TBI and its relation to post-traumatic stress disorder.
TBI Sufferers Show Significantly Lower Empathy
The Brain Blogger points to a recent study in the Journal of International Neuropsychological Society that shows that 61% of sufferers of traumatic brain injury exhibit low scores on the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES), meaning they had less ability to empathize with others. The study seems to indicate that the low scores were not influenced by the severity of the brain damage, suggesting that even mild TBI can have lasting effects and that TBI interrupts general social cognition.
It’s interesting to note that almost simultaneously the University of Michigan has found in a recent study there that nearly one out of five delinquent youths suffer from some level of TBI. The question comes to mind, could a decreased level of empathy in TBI patients be related to the increased delinquency among youth who have some form of TBI?
