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| Sunday, 14 August 2005 |
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Science Brain scans monitor thoughts
Scientists say they have been able to monitor people's thoughts via scans of their brains. Teams at University College London and University of California in LA could tell what images people were looking at or what sounds they were listening to. The US team say their study proves brain scans do relate to brain cell electrical activity. The UK team say such research might help paralysed people communicate, using a "thought-reading" computer. In their Current Biology study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, people were shown two different images at the same time - a red stripy pattern in front of the right eye and a blue stripy pattern in front of the left. The volunteers wore special goggles which meant each eye saw only what was put in front of it. In that situation, the brain then switches awareness between both images, sometimes seeing one image and sometimes the other. While people's attention switched between the two images, the researchers used fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) brain scanning to monitor activity in the visual cortex. It was found that focusing on the red or the blue patterns led to specific, and noticeably different, patterns of brain activity. The fMRI scans could reliably be used to predict which of the images the volunteer was looking at, the researchers found. The US study, took the same theory and applied it to a more everyday example. They used electrodes placed inside the skull to monitor the responses of brain cells in the auditory cortex of two surgical patients as they watched a clip of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". They used this data to accurately predict the fMRI signals from the brains of another 11 healthy patients who watched the clip while lying in a scanner. Professor Itzhak Fried, the neurosurgeon who led the research, said: "We were able to tell one part of a scene from another, and we could tell one type of sound from another." Dr. John-Dylan Haynes of the UCL Institute of Neurology, who led the research, told the BBC News website: "What we need to do now is create something like speech-recognition software, and look at which parts of the brain are specifically active in a person." He said the study's findings proved the principle that fMRI scans could "read thoughts", but he said it was a very long way from creating a machine which could read anyone's mind. But Dr Haynes said: "We could tell from a very limited subset of possible things the person is possibly seeing." "One day, someone will come up with a machine in a baseball cap. "Then it really could be helpful in everyday applications." He added: "Our study represents an important but very early stage step towards eventually building a machine that can track a person's consciousness on a second-by-second basis. "These findings could be used to help develop or improve devices that help paralysed people communicate through measurements of their brain activity. But he stressed: "We are still a long way off from developing a universal mind-reading machine."Dr. Fried said: "It has been known that different areas of the temporal lobe are activated by faces, or houses. "This UCL finding means it is not necessary to use strikingly different stimuli to tell what is activating areas of the brain." Some genes keep elderly fit A single gene determines a big part of mobility in the elderly. Regular exercise keeps us fit. But not everyone is born equal: a few people get little benefit from physical activity because their genetic make up doesn't allow it. Research now shows that the same holds true for the elderly, where the stakes are much higher. A third of adults over 70 in the US are unable to walk for half a kilometre without difficulty, or to climb up ten steps without having to stop for a rest. Such people are four times more likely to end up in a nursing home, and three times likelier to die before those who are fitter. To find out if there is a genetic component in who stays fittest the longest, Stephen Kritchevsky at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and his colleagues conducted a four-year study of 3,000 American adults in their seventies. The team examined participants every six months, and asked them about their mobility and how much exercise they took. At the end, they were surprised by how big a role genetics appears to play in keeping the elderly on their feet. A third of the group reported that they were 'active', burning more than 1,000 calories per week during exercise - the equivalent of walking for about five or six hours. And 40% of the study group developed some sort of mobility problem during the four years. The researchers focussed on a gene for an enzyme called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), which is important in heart strength and regulating blood pressure. There are two types of ACE gene. The slightly shorter one, called D for deletion, results in the synthesis of higher levels of the enzyme than its longer counterpart, I, or insertion. Studies have shown that among athletes, those with two copies of the 'D' form excel in sports that rely on strength and power. While those with two copies of the 'I' form tend to be better at endurance sports. "We really didn't know whether the 'D' or the 'I' form would be most important in elderly people," says Kritchevsky. In the end, those with two 'D' genes - about a third of the overall group - were most likely to retain their mobility. Perhaps they had extra strength that protected them from injury, the team speculates. At the other end of the scale, those with two copies of the 'I' gene were 45% more likely to develop difficulties than those with at least one 'D' gene, regardless of how much they exercised. This doesn't mean that senior citizens with two 'I' genes might as well become couch potatoes, say the researchers. Those who exercised regularly were still less likely to develop mobility problems, regardless of their genetics. Even if those with two 'I' genes can't benefit from exercise as much as their comrades with more favourable gene profiles, they are still better off for a brisk walk. Open kidney surgery still the best Urologists often view less-invasive surgery as more desirable for patients, but a new Mayo Clinic study disputes that belief for at least one procedure. The Mayor Clinic researchers studied open nephron-sparing surgeries, or NSS, from 1985 to 2001 and found the "gold standard" of open surgery for kidney tumors should remain the first choice for many patients. "By comparing the first decade of elective open surgeries with more contemporary ones, we found patient outcomes have greatly improved," said lead investigation Dr. Michael Blute, a Mayo Clinic urologist. "This leads us to the understanding that while there are some new treatment options out there, what was once the only option (open NSS) is still quite often the best option." Wrist tag offers drug warning An electronic wristband could prevent hospital patients being given the wrong drugs with potentially fatal effects. The "Brilliant" bracelet, designed by Brunel University student Claire Dunne, matches medicines against the wearer's prescription to help to avoid errors. When an incorrect drug is placed next to an electronic sensor embedded in the bracelet, it gives a visual warning. The wristband has already been tested at St Anthony's private hospital in Surrey, with promising results. Potentially, it could be rolled out to more hospitals in the future, although the prototype does need more work before this could be possible. Medication errors are one of the most common medical mistakes and could play a part in hundreds of deaths each year, experts believe. In England, five out of every 100 oral drug doses in hospitals go wrong, according to the Department of Health, although most errors do not cause harm. The "Brilliant" wristband contains a sensor to scan medicines, and a chip. The chip is programmed on the patient's arrival at the hospital with their details and drug requirements. When a drug bottle or pack is placed on the wristband's sensor, this scanner checks the electronic tags built in to the medicine's packaging to make sure it is correct for the patient. The wristband then informs the nurse if the correct drug has been selected by displaying this information on the wristband's screen. Each time a dose is given, the date and time are logged in the chip contained inside the wristband. This information can be downloaded to a hospital computer. The wristband is re-usable as the information on the chip can simply be wiped. Claire Dunne tested a prototype along with eight nurses at St Anthony's. The device was able to spot when the incorrect drugs were being selected by the nurse, and tell the nurse what dose should be prescribed via text on the display window. Ward Sister Helen Groome, who tried out the prototype, said: "It was easy to use." She said it would help to avoid mistakes such as giving the wrong dose or repeating a dose that had already been given. "This would be a good reinforcement that the correct drug and dose had already been given to a patient and reduce the chance of overdosing in error." The National Patient Safety Agency's joint chief executives, Sue Osborn and Susan Williams, said: "We are currently working on safer patient identification such as wristband identification and checking procedures. "We will communicate with the whole health service and other interested
parties such as the healthcare industry when ways of avoiding mismatching
errors are developed further." |
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