Post by Amtram on Feb 19, 2014 19:51:08 GMT -5
I love this article by Dr. Steven Novella, "Hacking the Brain - a New Paradigm in Medicine." It's a good explanation of why researchers are looking into non-pharmaceutical treatments for the brain that focus on electrical signalling rather than chemical signalling. First of all, he explains why changing the chemistry is not always the best approach:
He makes it clear that there are limitations to this approach that we may or may not be able to overcome given our current technology, but explains why he thinks it's worthwhile to explore. To be honest, I've already had some invasive brain stuff, and I would be open to something being implanted in my head if it looked like it was going to work!
If the brain were designed top-down it might have made sense to have each specific function or circuit in the brain use a unique neurotransmitter and a unique receptor. If this were the case, then we could design drugs that would have only one desired effect. But this is not the brain we have. Our brains evolved from the bottom-up, resulting in the use of a few neurotransmitters in various circuits in the brain, with receptors that are related because they are evolutionarily derived from common receptor ancestors. Therefore, when we design a dopamine agonist to treat Parkinson’s disease, they can cause psychotic side effects because similar receptors are used in other parts of the brain.
In some cases we are already pushing up against the limits of specificity to the pharmacological paradigm in neurology. If we are going to have treatments that are dramatically more effective or specific, we need a “paradigm shift.”
Fortunately the brain is also an electrical organ. Neuron firing can be affected by electrical stimulation or magnetic fields. There is no theoretical limit to the specificity of this approach, only practical technological limits. If we could target specific neurons and directly affect their firing, we could have any level of control over brain function.
In some cases we are already pushing up against the limits of specificity to the pharmacological paradigm in neurology. If we are going to have treatments that are dramatically more effective or specific, we need a “paradigm shift.”
Fortunately the brain is also an electrical organ. Neuron firing can be affected by electrical stimulation or magnetic fields. There is no theoretical limit to the specificity of this approach, only practical technological limits. If we could target specific neurons and directly affect their firing, we could have any level of control over brain function.
He makes it clear that there are limitations to this approach that we may or may not be able to overcome given our current technology, but explains why he thinks it's worthwhile to explore. To be honest, I've already had some invasive brain stuff, and I would be open to something being implanted in my head if it looked like it was going to work!