Bill Skaggs wrote:
>> Marco de Innocentis <mdeinnocentis at hotmail.com> writes:
>> > In his book "Phantoms in the brain", V.S. Ramachandran writes
> > about a device called a transcranial magnetic stimulator, which,
> > in his words, is 'relatively easy to construct' and can stimulate
> > any part of your brain. If this is true, then why has such a
> > device not been used for commercial purposes so far? Is it because
> > its use can be dangerous?
> >
> > Marco
>> The physics of magnetic fields greatly limit the utility of such a
> device. It can only be used to stimulate the neocortex, and only
> parts of it that lie within sulci (folds), which make up a rather
> small fraction of the whole. Also, it is impossible to get very much
> specificity for the stimulation. As a result, you can use magnetic
> stimulation to get things like limb twitches (by stimulating motor
> cortex), or perception of flashes of light (by stimulating visual
> cortex), or perception of a buzzing sound (by stimulating auditory
> cortex), or a few more subtle effects, but nothing, as far as I know,
> that would be commercially desireable.
There are currently several studies underway examining the effects of
rTMS. These include: TMS vs ECT, effects of TMS on learning, effects of
TMS on memory, and several other studies (the details of which escape me
at the moment). These are being done in many labs accross the country
with the ones I am familliar with done at beth israel deaconness in
boston. So far the data are very very promising. We've had people
respond to TMS who did not respond to ECT without frying the neurons.
mark
--
**************
This simple thing has not been that easy to learn. It certainly went
against
everything I had been taught since I was very young. I thought people
listened
only because they were too timid to speak or did not know the answer. A
loving
silence often has far more power to heal and connect than most well
intentioned words.
Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
Kitchen Table Wisdom
http://www.goti.net/members/mmorin/index.htm
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