I suffer from tremors caused by my Parkinson’s Disease. Professor Peter Tass from Forschungszentrum Julich and his team of scientists have proven that the misfiring of the brain in 5 Hz per second is not solely caused by transmissions from the muscles in the limbs back to the brain. Until now scientists have believed that the brain was actually receiving the misfires rather than creating them.
“Signals in the frequency domain of 5 Hz from the core region of the brain also drive the tremor”, explained Peter Tass. “The difference: the feedback from the limbs is a fast and easy stimulus transmission. The signals from the thalamus and the basal ganglia are, however, transmitted to certain loop-like neuron pathways of the brain and spinal cord. Therefore, the dynamics are more complicated and the pathway is longer.” This supports the basis of the “deep brain pacemaker” that is being developed by Tass and his associates.
The deep brain pacemaker actually disrupts the signals deep within the brain and disrupts the compulsive signal associated with tremors. While deep brain stimulation is now being performed on Parkinson’s patients regularly, Tass maintains that the deep brain pacemaker will be less strenuous and take less energy than comparable devices. The deep brain pacemaker will stimulate the brain tissue making it forget to transmit the diseased rhythms and disrupting the synaptic nerve patterns that cause the tremors.
The deep brain pacemaker is akin to deep brain stimulation in that there are two electrodes implanted in the brain rather than four. The power pack is still inserted into the body just under the collarbone and there are still lead wires that connect the two electrodes to the power packs.
The disruption of the 5 Hz neural firings by the brain will alleviate the resting tremors experienced by so many of us suffering from PD. Tass expects the deep brain pacemaker will bring patients out of their tremor patterns for good. The deep brain pacemaker will be available on a large scale sometime in 2009.
For a complete look at the article and the findings of Tass and his group go to:
