A Personalized Brain Pacemaker for Parkinson’s
The New York Times
In a new frontier for deep brain stimulation, researchers used A.I. to develop individualized algorithms, which helped a skateboarder and other patients with Parkinson’s disease.
When Shawn Connolly was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease nine years ago, he was a 39-year-old daredevil on a skateboard, flipping and leaping from walls, benches and dumpsters through the streets of San Francisco. He appeared in videos and magazines, and had sponsorships from skateboard makers and shops.
But gradually, he began to notice that “things weren’t really working right” with his body. He found that his right hand was cupping, and he began cradling his arm to hold it in place. His balance and alignment started to seem off.
Over time, he developed a common Parkinson’s pattern, fluctuating between periods of rapid involuntary movements like “I’ve got ants in my pants” and periods of calcified slowness when, he said, “I could barely move.”
A couple of years ago, Mr. Connolly volunteered for an experiment that summoned his daring and determination in a different way. He became a participant in a study exploring an innovative approach to deep brain stimulation.
In the study, which was published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers transformed deep brain stimulation — an established treatment for Parkinson’s — into a personalized therapy that tailored the amount of electrical stimulation to each patient’s individual symptoms.
The researchers found that for Mr. Connolly and the three other participants, the individualized approach, called adaptive deep brain stimulation, cut in half the time they experienced their most bothersome symptom.
A “red alert” involving the private Blue Ghost mission in lunar orbit a year ago highlights a growing number of incidents above Earth’s neighbor.
The tech giant pushed back the timeline after spending billions to be on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.
Practitioners nationwide are striving to do what’s best for children’s health, while staying supportive in the face of mistrust and confusion.
A group of scientists and law enforcement officials are pointing to the role moss can play to help solve crimes.
Blaming chatbots, they are joining an earlier push for better protections by parents who say social media contributed to their children’s deaths.
Partula snails all but vanished from Polynesia after the arrival of a carnivorous foreign snail. But a global alliance of zoos has worked to bring them back.
Though high rates of the disease persist among the nearby Indigenous communities, the Canadian government is weighing rules that may allow energy giants to release treated mining waste into the river system.
A new study offers clues as to how the insects survive flooding as they emerge from a hibernation-like phase every winter.
Scientists studied centuries-old bird feathers from an ancient tomb on the coast, and then traced the origins back to the Amazon.
Blaming chatbots, they are joining an earlier push for better protections by parents who say social media contributed to their children’s deaths.
The agency is proposing allowing other tastes for vapes, like mint, coffees, spices or tea, to appeal to adults. At the same time, illicit candy-flavored types aimed at teenagers have flooded the market.
Dr. Vinay Prasad drew criticism for overriding career scientists and rejecting drugs by companies seeking agency approval.
Researchers have devised a new tool for discerning between naturally occurring viral outbreaks and those resulting from lab accidents.