Miryam Naddaf in Nature:
The technique known as deep brain stimulation (DBS) has improved cognition in people with traumatic brain injuries, a small clinical trial has found.
The trial data, published in Nature Medicine on 4 December1, show that the five participants had a 15–52% improvement in their processing speed in a cognitive test after three months compared to their performance before the DBS implants.
“For some participants, the improvements have been transformative, even many years after the injury,” says study co-author Jaimie Henderson, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University in California. Medium to severe traumatic brain injury (msTBI), often a result of wounds or trauma to the head, causes neurons to die and brain circuits to disconnect, leading to long-term cognitive difficulties. People who have this type of injury — of which there are more than 5 million in the United States — often cannot resume their pre-injury life and work.
More here.