Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation is a way of changing the functioning of the brain in a non-invasive manner. It can selectively stimulate nearly any brain region with relatively high precision. It has very recently been approved to treat the symptoms of major depression, but now scientists are going to test this method to improve sociability among people who are on the autistic spectrum.
People who have autistic disorders often have theory of the mind deficits. This means they are much less able to read the faces and intentions of other people. Those with Asperger's disorder, for instance, have trouble reading other people's facial expressions. People are much less decipherable and this can lead to a variety of social impairments.
The doctors are going to use deep transcranial brain stimulation to activate a specific area of the brain. This brain area is called the medial prefrontal cortex and it is important for sociability and social functioning. The medial prefrontal brain region is located right behind a person's face and has been implicated what is called theory of the mind deficits.
People with William's syndrome often have increased empathy towards different people. They also have much less social anxiety. Scientists think that this may in part be due to having increased activity in the medial prefrontal brain cortex. So stimulation of this brain region may be able to enhance empathetic awareness that someone feels towards other people.
Many people who have asperger's disorder or other types of autistic symptoms may often have a lot of trouble describing their own emotional states. Alexithymia is a term that describes a person's inability to understand or recognize their own feelings or emotions. So deep transcranial brain stimulation to increase activity in this region has the potential to reduce some of those symptoms and increase the number of emotions that a person is able to comprehend.
The medial prefrontal brain area could also be targeted to improve schizophrenic symptoms. People who have schizophrenic type symptoms have both positive symptoms such as hallucinations and negative symptoms such as emotional blunting and apathy. The negative schizophrenic symptoms overlap with many symptoms on the autistic spectrum and so they may also be improved by stimulating this brain region.
Changing activity in the medial prefrontal brain region may be able to improve the symptoms of anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure. The medial prefrontal cortex can be very pleasurable if activity there is changed. Electricity and certain drugs have the capacity to induce pleasure in this area.
In the future, disorders on the autistic spectrum may be treated with this kind of brain stimulation technique. It is far too premature to tell absolutely whether this brain manipulation mechanism will have the desired effect. However, the final outcome of the clinical trial should certainly be interesting. - 15437
People who have autistic disorders often have theory of the mind deficits. This means they are much less able to read the faces and intentions of other people. Those with Asperger's disorder, for instance, have trouble reading other people's facial expressions. People are much less decipherable and this can lead to a variety of social impairments.
The doctors are going to use deep transcranial brain stimulation to activate a specific area of the brain. This brain area is called the medial prefrontal cortex and it is important for sociability and social functioning. The medial prefrontal brain region is located right behind a person's face and has been implicated what is called theory of the mind deficits.
People with William's syndrome often have increased empathy towards different people. They also have much less social anxiety. Scientists think that this may in part be due to having increased activity in the medial prefrontal brain cortex. So stimulation of this brain region may be able to enhance empathetic awareness that someone feels towards other people.
Many people who have asperger's disorder or other types of autistic symptoms may often have a lot of trouble describing their own emotional states. Alexithymia is a term that describes a person's inability to understand or recognize their own feelings or emotions. So deep transcranial brain stimulation to increase activity in this region has the potential to reduce some of those symptoms and increase the number of emotions that a person is able to comprehend.
The medial prefrontal brain area could also be targeted to improve schizophrenic symptoms. People who have schizophrenic type symptoms have both positive symptoms such as hallucinations and negative symptoms such as emotional blunting and apathy. The negative schizophrenic symptoms overlap with many symptoms on the autistic spectrum and so they may also be improved by stimulating this brain region.
Changing activity in the medial prefrontal brain region may be able to improve the symptoms of anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure. The medial prefrontal cortex can be very pleasurable if activity there is changed. Electricity and certain drugs have the capacity to induce pleasure in this area.
In the future, disorders on the autistic spectrum may be treated with this kind of brain stimulation technique. It is far too premature to tell absolutely whether this brain manipulation mechanism will have the desired effect. However, the final outcome of the clinical trial should certainly be interesting. - 15437
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You can find more information at my blog. There are a variety of acquired brain injury treatments being carried out. Other ways to manipulate the brain via neurotechnology are also discusses on my blog.
