At The Beginning

Beginning my blog in english. I don't know how much time I will be spending on this but we shall see anyway

Deep in thought

I just found a really interesting paper in Nature (436, Jul 2005) saying that the

"Cybernetics thingy just jumps into psychiatry business."

Neurosurgeons in Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and in University of Cologne, Germany have individually successfully employed the technology so-called DBS or Deep Brain Stimulation which basically is a type of implantation of a stimulator into chest or belly of the patient where they can control it remotely. The stimulator is connected to several microelectrodes which are inserted into an extremely precise neuroanotomical target in the brain to help normalizing neuronal activities of the problematic neuron in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patient.

It is amazing how they actually visualize the brain (fMRI) and make a tomogram (Positron Emission Tomography) and finally pinpoint where exactly to put electrode to stimulate the brain. The team originally believe that the high frequency pulse from stimulator merely block excitatory neuron, by which, it damp down all the circuit. Low frequency does the same but by stimulating the inhibitory neuron instead.

Another cool stuff after having heard about implant of the first real cyborg guy "Matt Nagle".

Whewww !!