How Do We Repair the Damaged Brain?

Brain Science will provide innovative means to diagnose and treat the damage and diseased nervous system

If you were disabled by intrusive obsessions and compulsions could we activate a small part of your brain and turn off these unwanted thoughts? If paralyzed, could we provide a physical interface that could reconnect your muscles to your brain through man-made components. In short, could we repair your damaged brain? Researchers in the Brown Brain Science Program (BSP) are investigating precisely these issues.

The border between mind and brain is disappearing and mental illness is now recognized as brain illness. Disorders as clinically dissimilar as epilepsy, paralysis, depression, compulsive behaviors, and schizophrenia are all established to have neurobiological components. For example, in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the emergence of disordered thinking due to misconstrued neural signals in the brain results in unwanted or irrepressible movements or speech, particularly by disrupted activity in the frontal lobes.

Some cases of OCD are resistant to traditional drug therapies. Researchers in the Brown BSP, such as Psychiatrist Ben Greenberg, M.D. and Functional Neurosurgeon Gerhard Friehs are developing new ways to treat this disorder using Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) as treatment for these refractory cases. DBS uses a device like a cardiac pacemaker as a "neural pacemaker." Electrical stimulation is used to modify abnormal brain activity. Spectacular motor effects have been achieved in patients with uncontrollable tremors or Parkinson’s disease. The BSP team has been investigating whether DBS might also be applied to psychiatric disorders, such as OCD. For this research, abnormal neural circuits are first identified with PET and fMRI, functional neuroimaging techniques, and then selected as targets for DBS. While in its early stages, the research by this BSP group suggests that DBS may help restore normal function for humans with profoundly debilitating psychiatric disease.

In a related effort at neural repair, BSP investigators at Brown, led by Professor John Donoghue, are advancing the field of neuroprostheses: using the brain itself to drive the use of prosthetic devices. The brain ordinarily communicates with our sense organs and drives our muscles; about a million axons, or neural wires, deliver the brains commands to move to the spinal cord. Disease or trauma anywhere in this pathway may irreparably damage the ability to move, even though the commands are still normally formulated. Knowledge of how the brain represents information, as well as advanced electronics and computational tools, are making it possible to create physical devices that can restore these lost functions. At Brown, an interdisciplinary group of neuroscientists, computer scientists, engineers, neurosurgeons and their students are developing brain-machine interfaces to restore movement in paralyzed humans. This research program requires the development of miniaturized sensors to capture brain signals in Professor Arto Nurmikko’s laboratory and mathematical decoders to interpret neural codes in Professor Black’s laboratory. Commands generated through this physical gateway between the thought and the action can then be used to control assist devices such as a robot arm or a computer, or, potentially, to activate the paralyzed muscles themselves. This BSP affiliated research group has already shown that a small set of neurons recorded from the motor area of a monkey's brain is sufficient for the monkey control a computer cursor and let the monkey play a simple video game with its mind. One day, brain-machine interface technology may help the blind to see and paralyzed to walk. Brown BSP researchers are world leaders in the development of this new hybrid area of neurotechnology.

Beyond these two programs, Brown BSP scientists are actively working to understand and treat a variety of nervous system disorders, including drug addiction, Alzheimer's disease and additional neurologic and psychiatric disorders. The Brown BSP is actively working to establish new approaches for repairing the damaged brain that span innovative advances in neurotechnology to medicines.

Posted 11/03









				How Do We Repair the Damaged Brain? Brain Science will provide innovative means to diagnose and treat the damage and diseased nervous system If you were disabled by intrusive obsessions and compulsions could we activate a small part of your brain and turn off these unwanted thoughts? If paralyzed, could we provide a physical interface that could reconnect your muscles to your brain through man-made components. In short, could we repair your damaged brain? Researchers in the Brown Brain Science Program (BSP) are investigating precisely these issues. The border between mind and brain is disappearing and mental illness is now recognized as brain illness. Disorders as clinically dissimilar as epilepsy, paralysis, depression, compulsive behaviors, and schizophrenia are all established to have neurobiological components. For example, in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the emergence of disordered thinking due to misconstrued neural signals in the brain results in unwanted or irrepressible movements or speech, particularly by disrupted activity in the frontal lobes. Some cases of OCD are resistant to traditional drug therapies. Researchers in the Brown BSP, such as Psychiatrist Ben Greenberg, M.D. and Functional Neurosurgeon Gerhard Friehs are developing new ways to treat this disorder using Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) as treatment for these refractory cases. DBS uses a device like a cardiac pacemaker as a "neural pacemaker." Electrical stimulation is used to modify abnormal brain activity. Spectacular motor effects have been achieved in patients with uncontrollable tremors or Parkinson’s disease. The BSP team has been investigating whether DBS might also be applied to psychiatric disorders, such as OCD. For this research, abnormal neural circuits are first identified with PET and fMRI, functional neuroimaging techniques, and then selected as targets for DBS. While in its early stages, the research by this BSP group suggests that DBS may help restore normal function for humans with profoundly debilitating psychiatric disease. In a related effort at neural repair, BSP investigators at Brown, led by Professor John Donoghue, are advancing the field of neuroprostheses: using the brain itself to drive the use of prosthetic devices. The brain ordinarily communicates with our sense organs and drives our muscles; about a million axons, or neural wires, deliver the brains commands to move to the spinal cord. Disease or trauma anywhere in this pathway may irreparably damage the ability to move, even though the commands are still normally formulated. Knowledge of how the brain represents information, as well as advanced electronics and computational tools, are making it possible to create physical devices that can restore these lost functions. At Brown, an interdisciplinary group of neuroscientists, computer scientists, engineers, neurosurgeons and their students are developing brain-machine interfaces to restore movement in paralyzed humans. This research program requires the development of miniaturized sensors to capture brain signals in Professor Arto Nurmikko’s laboratory and mathematical decoders to interpret neural codes in Professor Black’s laboratory. Commands generated through this physical gateway between the thought and the action can then be used to control assist devices such as a robot arm or a computer, or, potentially, to activate the paralyzed muscles themselves. This BSP affiliated research group has already shown that a small set of neurons recorded from the motor area of a monkey's brain is sufficient for the monkey control a computer cursor and let the monkey play a simple video game with its mind. One day, brain-machine interface technology may help the blind to see and paralyzed to walk. Brown BSP researchers are world leaders in the development of this new hybrid area of neurotechnology. Beyond these two programs, Brown BSP scientists are actively working to understand and treat a variety of nervous system disorders, including drug addiction, Alzheimer's disease and additional neurologic and psychiatric disorders. The Brown BSP is actively working to establish new approaches for repairing the damaged brain that span innovative advances in neurotechnology to medicines. Posted 11/03