Editor's Note Staying awake during brain surgery to sing Taylor Swift songs helped ensure the best possible outcome for Selena Campione, a 36-year-old teacher from Stanhope, New Jersey who recently had a tumor removed at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. As detailed in a March 21 report from People, neurooncologist…
Editor's Note A patient undergoing emergency neurosurgery at Northwestern Medicine became the first to benefit from a neurosurgical drill designed to eliminate the need for hand-crank operation. According to a March 5 report from Northwestern, the procedure occurred in October at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, “when Northwestern Medicine neurosurgeon Matthew Potts, MD used…
Editor's Note A new study finds that the same cells that are involved in preventing damage to the central nervous system – called microglia – help to awaken the brain following anesthesia. The findings appeared January 4 in the journal Nature. Using electron-microscopy-based synaptic reconstruction, the researchers could see the…
Editor's Note Two researchers from South China University of Technology have developed an affordable electroencephalogram (EEG) measurement system that can be incorporated into virtual reality (VR) headsets. In the future, the researchers hope to use the device to explore people's brain activity while navigating specific virtual environments and to study…
Editor's Note Functional ultrasound has been shown to be a promising alternative to brain-machine-interface (BMI) devices to read neural activity and assist people with paralysis. These findings were published by Nature Neuroscience on November 30. BMIs typically require invasive surgical procedures to implant the electrodes into the brain. While these…
Editor's Note An international team of researchers has unveiled a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner that is reportedly significantly more powerful than conventional MRI machines, a November 27 article published by Nature Methods reports. The new MRI is said to record up to 10 times with more detail than…
Editor's Note A patient with Parkinson’s disease was able to walk normally again thanks to a surgical implant of an experimental spinal cord neuroprosthesis. The findings were published in the journal Nature on November 6 under the article title, "A spinal cord neuroprosthesis for locomotor deficits due to Parkinson’s disease." …
Editor's Note From 2013 to 2020, women neurosurgeons received half the reimbursement dollars from Medicare compared to their male counterparts, JAMA Network October 11 reports. This investigative study, titled "Gender differences in Medicare practice and payments to neurosurgeons," was published by JAMA Surgery. The researchers analyzed data for 6,052 neurosurgeons…
Editor's Note In a first of its kind surgical procedure, doctors have installed artificial intelligence (AI) implants in the brain of a 46-year-old man who was paralyzed from a fall on the ice, CNN September 27 reports. The AI implant formed a "digital bridge"–an idea pioneered by the French neuroscientist…
Editor's Note Research by the Center for Longevity at the University of Texas, Dallas, suggests that older adults who engage in intensive fitness practices tend to have brains that more closely resemble those of younger adults, the August 23 UTDallas News reports. The study, which compared high-fit older adults (median…