IUBio

transcranial magnetic stimulator

Steve Haselwander neurophys at worldnet.att.net
Thu Sep 17 22:12:12 EST 1998


Transcranial magnetic stimulators are used to genrate motor responses that
are recorded over muscle groups for diagnosis and monitoring pathways during
neuro and ortho surgeries.


F. Frank LeFever wrote in message <6te2no$r30 at sjx-ixn10.ix.netcom.com>...
>
>I'll just expand on Dider's account a bit: there have been many
>exploratory/experimental applications, not "useful" in the therapeutic
>"practical" sense, but of some theoretical use--originally just
>verifying focal effects, e.g. simple motor responses or sensations, but
>increasingly aiming at brief interruptions of activity at specific
>locations and (more importantly) specific TIMES as a way to trace
>spatial/temporal anatomical sequences of cognitive activity.
>
>Don't recall any free-form subjective reports of the experiences, so
>don't know if these depended on the specific places LLinas was
>sitmulating or simply his interest in and opportunity to introspect and
>comment.
>
>F. Frank LeFever, Ph.D.
>New York Neuropsychology Group
>
>
>In <6tb6po$gic$1 at hecate.umd.edu> didier at Glue.umd.edu (Didier A.
>Depireux) writes:
>>
>>cpr (bug at cpinternet.com) wrote:
>>: In "Phantoms in the Brain", by Dr. Ramachandran he speaks of an
>easily made
>>: unit for stimulating specific parts of the brain.  It is called a
>>: transcranial magnetic stimulator.
>>It is basically a magnet, but generating a magnetic field many times
>what you
>>can easily get with a permanent magnet. It's therefore a simple piece
>of
>>equipment, but it involves very high voltages so don't try this at
>home. The
>>only real use I have seen made of it was for the treatment of
>depression.
>>Apparently, if you stimulate some part of frontal or prefrontal cortex
>(I
>>don't remember which) you _can_ get a temporary release from types of
>>depression that a resistant to more conventional forms of treatment.
>The only
>>person I have met who has used a transcranial stimulator is Llinas,
>who tried
>>it on various parts of his brain and reported getting strange feelings
>from
>>it, like unexpected input to the brain. It's like being on drugs for a
>short
>>while and without the drugs, I guess.
>>
>>I do know that in the early days of MRI, there would occasionally be
>power
>>outages and the person whose brain was inside the scanner would report
>strange
>>experiences and feelings.
>>
>> Didier
>>
>>--
>>Didier A Depireux                              didier at isr.umd.edu
>>Neural Systems Lab                 http://www.isr.umd.edu/~didier
>>Institute for Systems Research          Phone: 301-405-6557 (off)
>>University of Maryland                                -6596 (lab)
>>College Park MD 20742 USA                     Fax: 1-301-314-9920
>





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