Using gooey caps and Bluetooth to keep Parkinsons patients moving

Science Nation explores how bioengineering is helping Parkinsons patients and uncovering the secrets of brain plasticity. Video courtesy Science Nation.

For Parkinsons sufferers, the connection between the brain and the body breaks down. The disease causes nerve cells to die, which leads to rigid movement and tremors.

With the help of computer technology and the brains ability to rewire itself, Parkinsons patients may regain some of the control they have lost. Using a cap fitted with electrodes, Gert Cauwenberghs, a bioengineer of the Jacobs School of Engineering and the Institute for Neural Computation at the University of California San Diego, and his colleagues study neurons in Parkinsons patients as they move through a series of computer tests.

Their goal is to develop new technologies to help patients with Parkinsons disease better navigate the world, but these studies also teach scientists how our brain controls our movements. They want to know how nerve cells can create new connections and regain function.

Parkinsons disease is not just about one location in the brain thats impaired. Its the whole body Were using advanced technology, but in a means that is more proactive in helping the brain to get around some of its problems in this case, Parkinsons disease by working with the brains natural plasticity, in wiring connections between neurons in different ways, Cauwenberghs said.

In the video above, Miles OBrien has more on this story for the National Science Foundation series Science Nation.*

*For the record, the National Science Foundation is an underwriter of the NewsHour.

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Using gooey caps and Bluetooth to keep Parkinsons patients moving