The deep brain stimulation

The deep brain stimulation, technique used against Parkinson's disease and psychiatric disorders, will be improved through an atlas of the brain in three dimensions. The brain, "it does wears that if not in use, the opposite of batteries," said Dr. Stephen Hirsch, president of the Scientific Council of the Federation for brain research (FRC), on the occasion of the new campaign to call for donations (Neurodon) from 10 to 16 March. Extremely plastic, with an incredibly complex network of one hundred billion neurons, it evolves continuously from birth to death to adapt to our environment and experiences everyone: if 10% of connections interneuronales exist at birth The remaining 90% derived from influences encountered throughout our lives. This remarkable plasticity also allows partially compensate for the effects of an injury. The FRC has chosen this year to focus on deep brain stimulation, why the French are the undisputed leader. Developed in the late 1990's by a French team, one of Professor Alim Louis Benabid and Professor Polak in Grenoble, this technique has completely transformed the care of certain patients with Parkinson's disease. With today an extension measured application of this technique to some obsessive-compulsive disorder and some tics (disease Gilles de la Tourette), as well as in the field of neurosurgery. It is an electrical stimulation "high-frequency" issued with very thin electrodes that will cross a part of the brain (without harm) to reach deep cerebral areas. It has helped, in a small number of Parkinson's patients properly selected, deleted or rigidity quake. Google Earth "brain" We must, for that stimulation to be effective, and without side effects, specifically targeting the very tiny area, the subthalamic nucleus (ten millimetres long, five wide and three thick). Hence the importance of having maps of the utmost precision nerve centres. Neurodon helping, the Federation has funded the work of a team of the INSERM led by Dr. Jerome Yelnik, research director at the Salpêtrière. His team (in partnership with the CNRS and INRIA, the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control), has succeeded in creating a map of the brain in three dimensions, making it possible to reconstruct the structuretridimensionnelle "hubs of the brain ". Some tools have been developed to automatically adapt to the specific dimensions of the brain of each patient. Through this "brain Google Earth, it is now possible to zoom in and know with the utmost precision when implanted electrodes," says Dr. Hirsch. Thanks to the 1.8 million euro gift of the 2007 campaign, the FRC has been able to offer financial assistance to 25 projects of researchers. "But if the French are particularly interested in the progress of brain research, only a third of them felt sufficiently informed in this area," wishes to emphasize.