Hi Jonathan
A great posting again and I have had time to consider what you are
saying . I write and think slow .
It seems that your hook up systems expand systems rather than deal
with general systems failures . It would be very good at dealing with a
failure of a particular system ( say blindness ) by putting other
systems in to compensate but I feel it would be difficult to do in a
general systems failure ( like PD ) .
Let me use the computer analogy .
Epilepsy is analogous to a computer crashing . The brain has an
automatic reboot system .
2) PD is analogous to when my computer goes into a strange loop
where the cursor position continualy flicks between the hour glass
and the pointer ( PD tremor ) . Some functions work some dont ( as
with PD )
3) Blindness is analolgous to the corruption of a particular exe
file in a particular program .
In 3 it id possible to retore some functionality with the use of exe
files in other programs .
In 2 functionality can be restored by probably (?) interfering or
blocking the loop ( PD pallidotomy )
The analogy is of course deficient in many ways . The most obvious is
that a computer is hard wired but neural connections are plastic .
I think your ideas are great but may be more use in expanding the
conciousness and potential in an ordinary functioning brain rather than correcting
PD dysfunction .
I am just off now to build my coils for my much more modest
experiment . I hope yours is done .
> "sonification" allows multi-parameter information to be rendered as a
> single, custom designed, "sound stream", by the mapping of electronic
> signals to complex sounds. There has been some giant steps in this area,
> and only a small and obscure group of scientific investigators are aware of
> these developments, or had time to contemplate the implications. Coupled
> with deep brain stimulation, sonnification may be a useful tool in
> perceiving and altering the neurodynamics in real time.
>
> Recent technology makes it theoretically possible to create a display with
> which a neurologically impaired person would be part of the "loop"
> receiving and responding to the brains electrodynamic state with
> articulation and immediacy.
>
> The neurophysiological factors that have the most compelling effects on the
> functioning of the system involved in Parkinson's Disease, determined by
> evoked potential experiments or other means are presumably what would be
> manipulated. These may include frequency, amplitude, location site within
> the brain, sequencing, etc.
>
> Perhaps two different electrical frequencies would be fed simultaneously
> to separate electrode sites, or the same frequencies fed in varying
> sequence patterns . Or stimulation might be made contingent upon signals
> received from various electrode sites. Naturally this would be a
> cumbersome process by trial and error alone. But with the brain itself
> being part of the loop, this might be a whole different ball game.
>
> Thirty years ago, in a series of experiments at Smith Kettlewell Institute,
> a video camera and matrix of stimulators was used to create images on the
> back of non-sighted subjects [thus using the back as a "retina"]. When
> subjects in these experiments were given control of the camera, their
> understanding of what they were looking at "out there" took a qualitative
> leap forward. Perhaps similar advances may be found by combining
> sonification with deep brain stimulation in a feedback loop.
>
>
peace
Alastair ( [log in to unmask] )
