Welcome to your daily round-up of everything happening in the world of neurorehabilitation.
Research news
How the brain governs goal-directed actions
Researchers have demonstrated how dopamine pathways contribute to complex neural circuits that control goal-directed behaviour. Reported in Neurophotonics, the research investigated how mice time their actions in pursuit of rewards, exploring the role of a specific brain pathway called the mesocortical pathway, in the context of self-initiated movement.
Shared genetic links between sleep, neurodevelopmental, and neuropsychiatric conditions
Disturbed sleep is very common in almost all neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions (NDPCs), such as autism, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Researchers from the Family Genomics Research Group, Maynooth University, Republic of Ireland, have said that sleep disturbances are known to predate the onset of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, and that polygenic score analysis can identity whether these conditions and sleep traits share genetic variation.
The researchers used polygenic risk score analysis on large-scale genetic studies of NDPCs to test their ability to predict chronotype and insomnia in over 409,000 participants in the UK Biobank. Their findings, which strengthen known genetic correlation results in that they show that polygenic scores for autism and schizophrenia are associated with an evening chronotype, while polygenic scores for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder are associated with insomnia, could lead to new treatments.
Meditating with headband that tracks brain activity may improve surgical recovery in patients with Cushing’s
Patients with Cushing’s syndrome who are recovering from surgery and wear a headband that tracks brain activity while they meditate may have less pain and better physical functioning compared with patients not using the device, suggests a study being presented Monday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass.
The headband, called MUSE-2, uses electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors to measure brain activity and provides audio biofeedback while a person meditates. The research was supported by the Olin Family Gift, Recordati and the Mayo Clinic. The MUSE-2 devices were donated by the MUSE company.
Company and financial neuro-rehab news
Charco Neurotech is Walk for Parkinson’s 2024 sponsor
Cambridge Independent reports that Charco Neurotech, a leader in therapeutic innovations for Parkinson’s, has been unveiled as the sponsor of Parkinson’s UK’s Walk for Parkinson’s 2024 fundraising series. “This year’s series of walks will take place at the 15 locations across the UK between June and October, starting at Chatelherault Country Park in Hamilton on 2 June and concluding at Belfast’s Titanic Museum on 20 October. In between the walks will include Bristol, Reading, London, Leeds and Cardiff.”
TG Therapeutics announces presentations for BRIUMVI in Multiple Sclerosis
TG Therapeutics, today announced presentations highlighting study designs for post-marketing studies being undertaken for BRIUMVI in patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS), at the 2024 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) annual meeting. Find poster links here and here.
Technology news
Translation of neurotechnologies
A new review published in Nature provides a “systematic, state-of-the-art assessment of the opportunities and shortcomings of neurotechnology’s engineering and scientific components, and highlight the requirements to overcome translational barriers” and presents “a comprehensive framework to aid the clinical and commercial translation of neurotechnologies.”
