How well can you control your thoughts? Mind-control training could improve symptoms of Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
Deep brain stimulation, which involves implanting electrodes in the brain, helps to alleviate problems with movement experienced by people with Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
鈥淚f putting in an electrode works, we thought training brains to self-regulate might work as well,鈥� says at Cardiff University, UK.
Advertisement
To find out, Linden鈥檚 team asked 10 people with Parkinson鈥檚 to think about moving while having their brains scanned by fMRI for 45 minutes. Five were given real-time neurofeedback showing how well they activated a brain region that controls movement. Each participant was then told to practice such thoughts at home.
Two months later, movement problems including rigidity and tremor had improved by 37 per cent in the group that received feedback compared with no change in the rest. 鈥淪ending signals to brain areas normally deprived of input could be reshaping neural networks,鈥� says Linden.
, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, points out that the treatment would not work for everyone with Parkinson鈥檚 disease. 鈥淚f the person has a bad tremor then it would be difficult to get an image, while others don鈥檛 like being inside the scanners,鈥� he says.
But he agrees that the technique could be a useful option for some, especially young people with the condition. 鈥淵oung people don鈥檛 like taking medications [for Parkinson鈥檚] because they can have side effects in the long term鈥� such as uncontrolled movements and behaviour changes, he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great to focus on non-pharmacological approaches.鈥�
Journal reference: Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3498-11.2011
