{"674629":{"#nid":"674629","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Flicker Stimulation Shines in Clinical Trial for Epilepsy","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBiomedical engineer\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/singer.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EAnnabelle Singer\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;has spent the past decade developing a noninvasive therapy for Alzheimer\u2019s disease that uses flickering lights and rhythmic tones to modulate brain waves. Now she has discovered that the technique, known as flicker, also could benefit patients with a host of other neurological disorders, from epilepsy to multiple sclerosis.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPreviously, Singer and her collaborators demonstrated that the lights and sounds, delivered to patients through goggles and headphones, have beneficial effects. Flicker has been successful in animal studies and in\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/news.gatech.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/24\/early-feasibility-study-shows-flickering-lights-and-sound-could-be-new-weapon-0\u0022\u003Eearly human feasibility trials\u003C\/a\u003E, where it was tested for safety, tolerance, and patient adherence.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENow, thanks to a clinical trial for people with epilepsy, the researchers quantified flicker\u2019s effects with unprecedented precision. They also made an unexpected, but encouraging, discovery: The treatment reduced interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) in the brain.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThese large, intermittent electrophysiological events are observed between seizures in people with epilepsy. They appear as sharp spikes on an EEG readout.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat\u2019s interesting about these IEDs is that they don\u2019t just occur in epilepsy,\u201d said Singer, McCamish Foundation Early Career Professor in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/\u0022\u003EWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University\u003C\/a\u003E. \u201cThey occur in autism, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer\u2019s, and other neurological disorders, too.\u201d And IEDs disrupt normal brain function, causing memory impairment.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESinger and her team published their findings recently in\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-47263-y\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENature Communications\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Rhythm in Our Heads\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EInside the brain are elaborate symphonies of electrical activity: brain waves, or oscillations, that compose our memories, thoughts, and emotions. Singer wants to modulate those oscillations for therapeutic purposes.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAt specific frequencies of light and sound, the flicker treatment can induce gamma oscillations in mice. This helps the brain recruit microglia, cells responsible for removing beta amyloid, which is believed to play a central role in Alzheimer\u2019s pathology. Part of the work is in recording what\u2019s happening in the brain during treatment to verify how it\u2019s working.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe patients in the trial were under the care of physician\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/neurosurgery.wustl.edu\/people\/jon-t-willie\/\u0022\u003EJon Willie\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;at the Emory University Hospital Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. (Willie, co-corresponding author of the study with Singer, is now at Washington University in St. Louis.) They were awaiting surgery to remove an area of the brain where seizures occur. Before that could happen, they had to undergo intracranial seizure monitoring \u2014 recording electrodes are placed in the brain to pinpoint the seizure onset zone and determine exactly which tissue should be removed. Then, patients and their care team wait for a seizure to happen. It can take days.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIn human studies, we\u2019ve used noninvasive methods like functional MRI or scalp EEG, but they have real downsides in terms of resolution,\u201d Singer said. \u201cWorking with these patients was a game changer. These are people with treatment-resistant epilepsy, which means that drugs aren\u2019t working for them.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPathway to Healing\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESinger\u2019s team recruited 19 patients. Lead author of the study, Lou Blanpain, a former Ph.D. student in Singer\u2019s lab and now a medical student at Emory, went from patient to patient with the flicker stimulation and recording equipment.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBecause these patients already had recording probes implanted for clinical reasons, we were able to record directly from the brain,\u201d Singer said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never been able to get recordings of this quality during flicker treatment before.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs the researchers expected, flicker modulated the visual and auditory brain regions that respond strongly to stimuli. But it also reached deeper, into the medial temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex, brain regions crucial for memory. And across the brain, in regions Singer hadn\u2019t fully explored before, she found IEDs were decreasing.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat has important implications for whether flicker is therapeutically relevant for people with Alzheimer\u2019s, but also in general if we want to target anything beyond the primary sensory regions,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of this points to the potential use of flicker in a lot of different contexts. Going forward, we\u2019re definitely going to look at other conditions and other potential implications.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECitation:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;Lou T. Blanpain, Eric R. Cole, Emily Chen, James K. Park, Michael Y. Walelign, Robert E. Gross, Brian T. Cabaniss, Jon T. Willie, Annabelle C. Singer.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-47263-y\u0022\u003E\u201cMultisensory Flicker Modulates Widespread Brain Networks and Reduces Interictal Epileptiform Discharges,\u201d\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ENature Communications\u003C\/em\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFunding:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003ENational Institutes of Health (R01 NS109226, RF1NS109226, RF1AG078736,\u0026nbsp;R01 MH120194, P41 EB018783, MH12019), DARPA, McCamish Foundation, Packard Foundation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECompeting interests:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;Annabelle Singer owns shares in Cognito Therapeutics, which aims to develop gamma stimulation-related products. These conflicts are managed by Georgia Tech\u2019s Office of Research Integrity Assurance.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBiomedical engineer\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/singer.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EAnnabelle Singer\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;has spent the past decade developing a noninvasive therapy for Alzheimer\u2019s disease that uses flickering lights and rhythmic tones to modulate brain waves. Now she has discovered that the technique, known as flicker, also could benefit patients with a host of other neurological disorders, from epilepsy to multiple sclerosis.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Biomedical engineer\u00a0Annabelle Singer\u00a0has spent the past decade developing a noninvasive therapy for Alzheimer\u2019s disease that also could benefit patients with a host of other neurological disorders, from epilepsy to multiple sclerosis."}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2024-05-09 21:09:38","changed_gmt":"2024-05-10 18:25:26","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-05-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-05-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"673971":{"id":"673971","type":"image","title":"Annabelle Singer in lab","body":"\u003Cp\u003EA scientist and her tools: Annabelle Singer has quantified her flicker technology with unprecedented precision in a new clinical trial. \u0026nbsp;\u2014 Photo by Jerry Grillo\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1715288693","gmt_created":"2024-05-09 21:04:53","changed":"1715288806","gmt_changed":"2024-05-09 21:06:46","alt":"Annabelle singer in laB","file":{"fid":"257433","name":"Annabelle3.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/05\/09\/Annabelle3.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/05\/09\/Annabelle3.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2465554,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/05\/09\/Annabelle3.jpg?itok=n9zhEfd6"}}},"media_ids":["673971"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"187423","name":"go-bio"},{"id":"44881","name":"Alzheimer\u0027s Disease"},{"id":"107981","name":"epilepsy"},{"id":"183802","name":"Flicker"},{"id":"187624","name":"gamma flicker"},{"id":"1613","name":"Biomedical Engieering"},{"id":"187320","name":"brain activity"},{"id":"172970","name":"go-neuro"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71891","name":"Health and Medicine"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}