Hooked on a Feeling
It may be something as small as noticing food on their plate or larger, such as recognizing a person who is sitting to their left, but this condition known as hemispatial neglect may have a new therapy to help stimulate the nerve cells in the brain. Hemispatial neglect is very common in stroke patients, affecting up to 50% of patients, but now research in Italy has had a breakthrough by utilizing magnetic stimulation to rejuvenate the cells.
The technique is call transcranial magnetic stimulation; a large electromagnetic coil is placed against the patient`s scalp creating electoral currents that stimulate nerve cells. Research found that the patients who received this treatment (coupled with traditional treatments) had a 16% improvement by the end of the first two weeks and a 23% improvement two weeks following that. In the same study conducted, there were patients that were given a `sham` treatment in conjunction with traditional treatments that showed no improvement whatsoever, proving the technique has some validation. The full study was published in the December 13th online edition of Neurology.
