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maryjane

Posted by maryjane1 on 15 Jun 2012 at 06:59 GMT

I would like to know, if you can put this devise into a person's brain, so they can move, if paralyzed...then can you also make a devise that can help people suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, take more control of their live's? Since they suffer with anxiety every day, and they are so scared, or agorapobic, that they some time's can't even go outside, becasue they are so afraid...can you put a device, that can off-set the fear, and give them the movtivation to go out into the world? Help them can you????

No competing interests declared.

RE: maryjane

rahuls replied to maryjane1 on 15 Jun 2012 at 16:13 GMT

Hello, I'm the author (Rahul Sarpeshkar) who led this work. Our focus was on motor prosthetics, where, due to prior ultra-low-power innovations from my lab, the power consumption was low enough that a glucose fuel cell is practical. For current deep brain stimulatory applications (some of which are heavily being researched for fear extinction and PTSD), the power consumption will likely be too high today but may not be so in the future.

You may want to visit websites at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT to find faculty doing research on fear extinction and contact them on suggestions for more immediate therapies. It is my opinion that most of this research is still very early and not ready for actual clinical trials but I do believe that there is a lot of promise here.

My best wishes to you and good luck.

No competing interests declared.