The former Blair lobbyist, 53, was able to whisper the word 'pain' to his wife, who watched on 'in tears' over FaceTime.The former Blair lobbyist, 53, was able to whisper the word 'pain' to his wife, who watched on 'in tears' over FaceTime.
An experimental treatment may have "jump-started" the brains of two patients who had been in a minimally conscious state for months following a coma, according to a new study.
© Provided by Live Science An illustration of the human brain. Both patients had severe brain injuries and had shown only limited signs of consciousness for more than a year. But after receiving the treatment — which involved ultrasound to "excite" cells in a brain region called the thalamus — the patients showed sudden improvements in their condition, according to the study, published Jan. 15 in the journal Brain Stimulation. For example, after treatment, one patient could move their head to indicate "yes" or "no" in response to certain questions.
Such quick recovery is unusual in patients in a prolonged, minimally conscious state — meaning the person is awake but shows only small signs of consciousness. In these patients, "any recovery typically occurs slowly over several months and more typically years," study co-senior author Martin Monti, a professor of psychology and neurosurgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement. But these two patients showed significant progress over just days to weeks, he said.
Previous studies have found that stimulating the thalamus with surgically implanted electrodes can lead to similar improvements, but that method is invasive and doesn't work in all patients, said Dr. Neel Singhal, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco who was not involved in the study. Singhal called the new research "groundbreaking," because the method is "non-invasive and can potentially be applied to a much broader set of patients than deep brain stimulation."
However, the new findings are very preliminary, and the ultrasound method does not appear to help all patients. There were a total of three patients in the new study; of the two patients that benefited, one showed an initial improvement but later regressed, and a third patient showed no benefit.
Related: 10 things you didn't know about the brain
For the study, the doctors used a saucer-like device to aim ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain. In this case, the researchers targeted the thalamus, a structure deep in the brain that acts as a hub to relay sensory information to other parts of the brain. They targeted this region because its performance is typically weakened after a coma, the researchers said.
The three patients in the study underwent two 10-minute sessions with the device, one week apart.
Gallery: 10 ways COVID-19 changed the world (Live Science)
A number of new words and phrases entered the general lexicon in 2020. We were told we need to "social distance," or stay six feet apart, so that we could "flatten the curve," or slow the disease's spread in order to reduce the burden on the healthcare system. People even became familiar with relatively obscure epidemiological terms like the "basic reproduction number" (R0, pronounced R-nought), or the average number of people who catch the virus from a single infected person. And of course the name of the illness itself, COVID-19, is a new term, with the World Health Organization officially naming the disease on Feb. 11.
The pandemic took a serious toll on people's mental health in 2020. One study published in August by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that levels of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts skyrocketed amid the pandemic.
The study could not determine the reason for the rise in mental health conditions, but factors relating to the pandemic, such as social isolation, school and university closures, unemployment and other financial worries, as well as the threat of the disease itself, may play a role, the authors said.
From the idea that drinking bleach can kill the norovirus to a theory that the virus was created in a lab as a bioweapon, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a flurry of misinformation. Indeed, one study, published Aug. 10 in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, found that the pandemic has hatched more than 2,000 rumors, conspiracy theories and reports of discrimination.
Such false information can have serious consequences — the researchers of the new study found that COVID-19 related rumors were linked to thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths.
"Health agencies must track misinformation associated with ... COVID-19 in real time, and engage local communities and government stakeholders to debunk misinformation," the authors concluded.
Coronavirus lockdowns, which slowed the normal hustle and bustle of cities to a near halt, also appeared to dramatically lower emissions of carbon dioxide around the world. A study published May 19 in the journal Nature Climate Change found that daily global carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 17% in early 2020, compared with levels in 2019. That appears to be one of the biggest drops in recorded history. But this temporary drop is far from enough to undo the harmful effects of man-made climate change.
"Although this is likely to lead to the largest cut in emissions since World War II, it will make barely a dent in the ongoing build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts Research at the Met Office Hadley Centre in England, said in a statement.
One of the patients was a 56-year-old man who had been in a minimally conscious state for 14 months after having a stroke. After the ultrasound treatment, the man showed that he could consistently respond to commands such as dropping a ball or looking toward photos of his relatives when he heard their names. He could also nod his head for "yes" and shake his head to mean "no" when asked questions about himself. And for the first time since his stroke, he could use a pen and paper and put a bottle to his mouth. However, the man regressed to his minimally conscious state after a few months.
The second patient was a 50-year-old woman who had been in a minimally conscious state for 2.5 years after going into cardiac arrest. She had previously shown no response when given any command, but after the treatment, she consistently responded to commands by moving her head or fingers. She was also able to recognize objects, including a pencil and a comb, for the first time in years. The woman maintained her improvements over the six-month follow-up period, they said.
The third patient, a 58-year-old man who had been in a minimally conscious state for 5.5 years following a car accident, didn't show any benefit from the treatment.
In 2016, this same group of researchers used the ultrasound treatment on a 25-year-old man who had been in a minimally conscious state for just a few weeks. In that instance, the treatment also appeared to fire up his brain — he soon regained full consciousness and language comprehension.
But at that time, the researchers cautioned that their finding may have just been a coincidence — in other words, the man may have spontaneously recovered just as the researchers started the treatment. In the new report, it's "very unlikely" that the two patients recovered spontaneously, given the length of time they had been in a minimally conscious state, Monti said.
As for why the third patient in the new study didn't respond to the treatment, the researchers speculate that perhaps the person's thalamus was damaged or disconnected from other brain regions. In that subgroup of patients, this method may not help.
"Just to make an example, if someone had a 'fully disconnected' thalamus, we could stimulate it all we want, and it would not help re-igniting the complex web of brain networks needed for complex cognitive function (and behavior)," Monti told Live Science in an email.
Even though the changes seen in the study are small, they can mean a great deal to patients and their families. "For our patients, even being just able to communicate with their loved one — in however restricted a fashion ... might mean regaining the ability to be part of their social environment, of the lives of their loved ones, and recovering some degree of personal autonomy," Monti said.
The researchers said they are investigating whether the dose and frequency of ultrasound exposure could affect the level and duration of the benefit. "With further fine-tuning of the stimulation protocol, patient selection and device, this may bring tangible benefits to patients with severe brain injuries," who currently have no definitively effective treatments available to improve neurological recovery, Singhal told Live Science.
The authors stressed that the ultrasound treatment is experimental and likely will not be available to the public for several years.
Originally published on Live Science.
Back to work tips for you and your colleagues as lockdown has literally changed minds .
THIS pandemic has been tough and impacted all of us. Many have had the good fortune to keep their jobs and had the mixed benefits of working from home. Others have had to brave public transport and go to work, in essential retail and construction for instance, with all the risks involved.Read on to find out what happens and how to help. COVID 19 has had an impact on the brain and nervous system of every single one of us.
The former Blair lobbyist, 53, was able to whisper the word 'pain' to his wife, who watched on 'in tears' over FaceTime.The former Blair lobbyist, 53, was able to whisper the word 'pain' to his wife, who watched on 'in tears' over FaceTime. 
Perpetual Uke gave birth at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham while on a ventilator in an induced coma and did not see her newborn babies until she came round sixteen days later. The twins, Palmer, a girl and Pascal, a boy, stayed in a Birmingham hospital where they 'fought aggressively for their lives' before being discharged more than 100 days later. Perprtual, a rheumatology consultant at Birmingham City Hospital, began to feel unwell with flu-like symptoms in late March.After calling NHS 111 she began a period of self-isolation but, over the coming days, she felt progressively more unwell. 
Bindi Irwin posted an adorable video of her and husband Chandler Powell reacting to watching their daughter's ultrasound.The 22-year-old conservationist - who is the daughter of the late Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin - has shared a video of the moment she and her spouse saw the unborn tot wriggle for the first time. 
Treatment options for all young people are being paused contrary to NHS guidelines, a GIDS clinician told iFollowing a High Court decision earlier on this month which ruled that people under the age of 16 cannot consent to hormonal treatment, guidelines on NHS treatment options for young transgender people using the service have been under review. 
Follow this jump rope workout from Tommy Duquette and burn 150 calories in just 10 minutesTommy Duquette, FightCamp co-founder and former US National Boxing Team Member who also happens to be an amazing trainer and an all-around nice person, was kind enough to put yet another workout together exclusively for the readers of T3. Not only that but he also provided a blog post on FightCamp where he further explains every possible detail there is to know about jump rope workouts. 
The Sparkle Coach's weekly fitness and well-being vlog and column 
A preliminary study hints that the virus may infect astrocytes, triggering downstream effects.The star-shaped cells, called astrocytes, perform many roles in the nervous system and provide fuel to neurons, which transmit signals throughout the body and brain. In a lab dish, the study found that infected astrocytes stopped producing critical fuel for neurons and secreted an "unidentified" substance that poisoned nearby neurons. 
THIS pandemic has been tough and impacted all of us. Many have had the good fortune to keep their jobs and had the mixed benefits of working from home. Others have had to brave public transport and go to work, in essential retail and construction for instance, with all the risks involved.Read on to find out what happens and how to help. COVID 19 has had an impact on the brain and nervous system of every single one of us. 
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10-minute jump rope full body workout with FightCamp co-founder Tommy Duquette 
This jump rope full body workout will burn 150 calories in just 10 minutes 
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