Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is now a mainstream treatment for people with Parkinson's and can help with symptoms such as stiffness, slowness and tremor.
The approach involves implanting fine electrodes in the brain to provide electrical stimulation to specific areas that control movement. Currently, this is set at a constant level regardless of what the patient is doing or the severity of their symptoms, leading to either understimulation, resulting in a breakthrough of symptoms, or overstimulation, leading to erratic movements.
Now experts say a big step has been taken towards improving the technique by enabling the level of stimulation to automatically adjust in response to a patient's needs, based on real-time signals in the brain.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
‘Scramble for the oceans’ Countries race to name and claim the remote seabed
“The sea does not belong to despots,” Jules Verne wrote in 1869 in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Landlords 'pose bigger fire risk to Dartmoor than wild campers'
Wild camping is not a significant fire risk on Dartmoor, new data shows, despite claims by a landowner who has been trying to ban the practice.
Conservationists call for rare acid grassland in Essex to be protected from housing plan
It is the second-best place for nightingales in the country, a sanctuary for rare barbastelle bats and home to nearly 1,500 invertebrate species, including a quarter of all Britain's spider species. But Middlewick Ranges on the edge of Colchester in Essex is set to be sold by the Ministry of Defence for 1,000 new homes.
Let down by politics and football, but at least my dog is a bouncy miracle
Herbie is now 13 years old. Which, depending on how you measure it, makes him somewhere in his 80s in dog years. For his last birthday, friends gave him some treats that claim to improve his joints. Now, I took glucosamine for years in a bid to make my knees marginally less creaky and never noticed any improvement.
TV review A triumph of sex, excess, and fabulous awfulness
Welcome to Rutshire!\" announces Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson), one of its calmer denizens and the only one with enough time between champagne-quaffing and nethers-slapping to ease a new family's passage into the bonkers, bonking Cotswolds set with conventional niceties. And what a welcome it's been!
Stop the shouting Armani: 'calm' style is secret to my success
“There is too much shouting in fashion today,” said Giorgio Armani, who is one the few global household names in fashion. At 90, he retains sole control of his company with a fortune estimated by Forbes to be $12.1bn (£9.3bn). He added that a “calm rather than loud” style had been the secret of his success, before a catwalk show in Manhattan.
Bella Freud's 'personality-packed' M&S collection sells out in a day
Marks & Spencer launched its much-anticipated collaboration with the cult designer Bella Freud on Thursday and had sold out of the vast majority of items in the 27-piece collection by yesterday afternoon.
Man found guilty of rape and manslaughter of woman in London
A man has been convicted of the rape and manslaughter of a woman while she lay unconscious on a park bench in west London after a night out.
Ethical minefield US startup charging couples to 'screen embryos for IQ'
US startup company is offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ using controversial technology that raises questions about the ethics of genetic enhancement.
Are you sitting comfortably? You will be in HS2's seats, say designers
For now, it is not clear how far passengers will be able to travel on future HS2 services - whether reaching Euston or all the way to Crewe. But a peek at HS2's embryonic carriages reveals travellers will be enthroned in “the best seats of any UK trains” - even, arguably, in the toilets.