A Chip to Better Control Brain Stimulators for Parkinson's

In theory, a device like this could automatically detect side effects or poor performance and change the pattern of stimulation. But the obvious question is, what recordings will give you this information? Where are you going to put these eight electrodes, and what are they going to tell you?

It’s a question that no one in the field is ready to answer because, as Vitek points out, we don’t even really know how deep-brain stimulation works when everything goes right. In the 1980s, promising drug treatments proved to be only temporarily effective with tremor patients, which pushed researchers in the field to find new options. After observing that surgical brain lesions could quell movement disorders, doctors began inserting electrodes into the brain. One technique took chunks of brain offline completely; another stimulated them. But both seemed to work.

Since then, the picture has not gotten a whole lot clearer. But, says Vitek, ”if you wait until you’ve got everything figured out, you’re going to be waiting a long time.”

For now, Kipke’s device will serve as a research tool. ”This technology will help support research in animals that will lead to a better idea of signals that should be analyzed,” he explains.

The group is also trying to make the system more energy efficient. They claim to have already reduced the power consumption and size compared with other stimulators, characteristics that would translate into huge benefits for a clinical model.