Interfacing with the brain for therapy

脑部疾病的治疗仍然是一个重大挑战。这在一定程度上是因为药物忽略了神经细胞之间决定大脑功能和功能障碍的即时相互作用。然而，电刺激疗法可以足够快地干预以改变这些相互作用。我们的中心假设是，我们可以改进基于电刺激的治疗方法，根据任何给定情况下神经回路的状态来滴定刺激。在这个研究项目中，我们将专注于患有帕金森病和特发性震颤两种典型疾病的患者，并开发反馈控制形式的深部脑刺激，以及通过皮肤上的电极将刺激传递到大脑表面或肢体神经的非侵入性刺激技术。使用这些方法，我们寻求开发治疗方法，以提高疗效和减少副作用。

The treatment of diseases of the brain remains a major challenge. This is partly because drugs ignore the moment-to-moment interactions between nerve cells that determine brain function and dysfunction. Electrical stimulation therapies, however, can intervene fast enough to modify these interactions. Our central hypothesis is that we can improve therapies based on electrical stimulation by titrating stimulation according to the state of neural circuits at any given instance. In this research programme we will focus on patients with two exemplar conditions, Parkinson’s disease and Essential Tremor, and develop feedback controlled forms of deep brain stimulation, and of non-invasive stimulation techniques where stimulation is delivered by electrodes on the skin to the surface of the brain or to nerves in the limbs. Using these approaches we seek to develop treatment approaches that serve to increase efficacy and lessen side-effects.