With an estimated 10 to 20 percent of our troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injury, the U.S. Army is trying innovative treatments to help them, according to Wired magazine. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/05/pentagon-turns-to-brain-implants-to-repair-damaged-minds/
The Pentagon will use brain implants, brain chips, that are meant to act as replacement parts for injured parts of the brain.
Darpa, which Wired calls “the military extreme science agency,” is spearheading the project. The initiative is named REPAIR, which stands for Reorganization and Plasticity to Accelerate Injury Recovery.
The project will initially get $14.9 million for its first two years, with the money going to four places, led by Stanford and Brown University.
There have been great leaps made in terms of understanding brain injury, with scientists now able to create conceptual models of brain activity. Researchers can also track the electrical pulses emitted by brain neurons, and therefore they have gained insight into how neurons communicate.
The REPAIR team will use optogenetics, which entails using light particles to turn “brain circuits on and off,” according to Wired.
The implants that REPAIR is developing will be made of electrodes or optical fibers, and will be placed on the surface of the brain. These devices will “read” the electric signals from neurons, and then emit light impulses to stimulate other parts of the brain to respond.
So these implants are intended to take the place of brain areas that are damaged.
REPAIR, if it is successful, can help more than brain-damaged veterans. The technology can also be used on civilians.
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