MIT researchers, collaborating with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the IT'IS Foundation, have developed a way to stimulate deep regions of the brain using electrodes placed on the scalp, according to MIT News.
Here are five insights:
1. To deliver deep stimulation within the brain, MIT researchers are using temporal interference, which requires generating two high-frequency electrical current using electrodes placed outside the brain.
2. Doctors can target locations deep within the brain without affecting any of the surrounding brain structures and steer the location without moving the electrodes by altering the current.
3. Currently the deep brain stimulation, which is known to treat Parkinson's disease, requires implanting electrodes in the brain.
4. This new approach makes deep brain stimulation noninvasive, less risky, less expensive and more accessible to patients.
5. Doctors also use deep brain stimulation to treat patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, epilepsy and depression.