Customized Brain Maps Help Boost Cancer, Epilepsy
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A team of medical device developers, neuroscientists, surgeons and engineers from the University of California San Diego is working on developing better customized maps that will be useful to physicians during brain tumor removal surgery.
Maps do already exist that physicians can reference. However, one individual’s brain isn’t the same as another’s, which is why customized maps are needed. Additionally, an individual’s brain may sometimes reorganize itself as a response to damage caused by things such as growing tumors, which can make it even harder to remove the tumor.
This is where sensors enter the picture. Surgical teams can utilize these sensors in determining the parts of the brain that are activated when actions such as moving or speaking are carried out, which can then be used by the team to come up with a map of the parts to avoid when performing the surgery. This will also help minimize possible damage caused by removing the tumor.
More specifically, the researchers are centered on enhancing the performance of the sensor mats, which are placed right on the surface of the brain. These enhanced sensor grids are also being utilized in the enhancement of epilepsy treatments. They enable surgeons to record brain signals when electrical stimulation is applied. Researchers are hopeful that further work in the area may aid in the development of better treatments of epilepsy and maybe even find the root cause of the disease.
The partnership between physicians and engineers was started when Eric Halgreen, a professor of radiology and neurosciences from UC San Diego Health, met. Shadi Dayeh, an electrical engineering professor from the institution’s Jacobs School of Engineering. The team has developed enhanced versions of sensor mats that can directly read signals from the surface of an individual’s brain during surgery.
Dayeh and the group of researchers have enhanced these systems in various ways, including increasing the density of single sensors in the grids as well as increasing the size of the sensor grids. In addition, they have developed sensors with grids that are packed more tightly, which enables surgeons to come up with higher resolution custom maps of an individual’s brain. The grids are also supple, which enables the surgeons to carefully follow the fluctuations of the brain’s surface, which in turn boosts signal reading.
Dayeh and his team recently established a startup with the objective to allow more clinicians to access the sensor grids they are creating.
The field of neurology diagnostics is evolving rapidly with established firms such as Brain Scientific Inc. (OTCQB: BRSF) unveiling technologies that could potentially disrupt how the medical community has been diagnosing neurological issues in patients.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Brain Scientific Inc. (OTCQB: BRSF) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/BRSF
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