The array developed by Jonathan Viventi, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and New York University, and colleagues is made of a pliable material that is only about one quarter the thickness of a human hair. It contains 360 electrodes and built-in silicon transistors, which allow for minimal wiring and dense packing of the electrodes. “This technology allows us to see patterns of activity before and during a seizure at a very fine scale, with broad coverage of the brain,” said Dr. Viventi, the study’s lead author.
The flexibility of the array allows it to conform to the brain’s complex shape, even reaching into grooves that are inaccessible to conventional arrays. With further engineering, the array could be rolled into a tube and delivered into the brain through a small hole rather than by opening the skull, the researchers said.
The researchers tested the flexible array on cats. Although mice and rats are used for most neuroscience research, cats have larger brains that are anatomically more like the human brain, with simplified folds and grooves.
The team evaluated the array in multiple contexts and brain areas. They found that it could record brain responses as the cats viewed simple objects and sleep rhythms while the cats were under anesthesia. In one set of experiments, the researchers recorded brain activity during drug-induced seizures. “We were able to watch as spiral waves began and became self-sustaining,” said Dr. Litt.
Using their flexible array technology, the researchers hope to identify these spiral brainwaves in people with epilepsy, to monitor seizures, and perhaps to control them. “We should be able to model the spirals and determine what kind of waveform can stop them. Or we can watch the spirals terminate spontaneously and try to reproduce what we see by stimulating the brain electrically,” Dr. Litt said.
Improved Memory Efficiency Seen After Aerobic Exercise in Fibromyalgia Patients
Areas of the brain responsible for pain processing and cognitive performance changed in patients with fibromyalgia who exercised following a medication holiday, according to researchers. They said the changes indicate that brain functioning is more streamlined after an exercise intervention because less of the brain’s resources is devoted to processing bothersome fibromyalgia perceptions such as pain.
The study used fMRI scans to assess changes in the brain. The researchers observed a decrease in brain activity in areas responsible for memory and pain control after patients with fibromyalgia took part in an exercise regimen.
“The decreased brain activity we see in the area of cognition suggests that the brain is working more efficiently,” explained senior study author Brian Walitt, MD, MPH, Director of the Fibromyalgia Evaluation and Research Center at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC. “We also see less brain activity in areas responsible for pain processing, which might be aiding that efficiency.” Dr. Walitt cautions that more research needs to be conducted before suggesting a change in clinical care for fibromyalgia.
Fibromyalgia is regarded as an interoceptive disorder in that it has no apparent cause, Dr. Walitt said. “In conditions like this, the body perceives something by mistake.” The pain is not psychosomatic, but is real and likely produced by the central nervous system, he said.
The researchers used fMRI to “provide a definitive measure of cognitive functioning, so that we can more scientifically measure the effect of exercise,” said Manish Khatiwada, MS, who presented the team’s results. “This is a novel approach to the study of fibromyalgia.”
For this study, the researchers enrolled 18 women with fibromyalgia, and gave them a baseline fMRI to assess working memory and questionnaires about their well-being and pain while they were on medication. The subjects were told not to use their medications for a “washout” period, and then had a second fMRI and memory testing. After six weeks, they had another assessment. The final scan was taken after the volunteers engaged in a six-week period of exercise, which involved three 30-minute sessions of aerobic exercise each week with a trainer.
Memory and pain typically worsen in patients after stopping their medication—which was the experience of patients in this study. After six weeks of exercise, however, patients reported an improvement in overall well-being. However, their performance in the memory task did not change significantly when compared to their baseline study measurements. Despite a change in memory test performance, brain activity in the memory task and pain processing areas of the brain decreased.
“What we see is less interference by pain activity, which could be contributing to the decrease in activity in the memory section. Basically, the brain is using less energy for the same task,” Dr. Walitt said.