________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
The procedure is known as low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation and was first designed at the University of California by Professor Alexander Bystritsky.
The 25-year-old’s responses improved dramatically within one day and three days later he was fully conscious.
It’s possible the breakthrough could lead to the development of a helmet-like, portable device to wake coma patients.
“The changes were remarkable. It’s almost as if we were jump-starting the neurons back into function,” study lead author Dr Martin Monti, a professor of psychology and neurosurgery at UCLA, said.
“Until now, the only way to achieve this was a risky surgical procedure known as deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted directly inside the thalamus.
“Our approach directly targets the thalamus but is non-invasive,” he added.
Researchers at UCLA plan to carry out further trials.
The
new technique uses sonic stimulation to excite the neurons in the
thalamus, the brain’s central hub for processing information.
DOCTORS
have successfully woken up a coma patient by jump-starting his brain
using a new ultrasound technique — for the first time ever.
According to The Mirror,
a coffee cup size device was put against the side of the patient’s head
over a 10-minute period, delivering low-intensity pulses, creating
acoustic energy to stimulate brain tissue.The procedure is known as low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation and was first designed at the University of California by Professor Alexander Bystritsky.
The 25-year-old’s responses improved dramatically within one day and three days later he was fully conscious.
The researchers targeted the thalamus with low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation.Picture: Martin Monti/UCLASource:Supplied
“The changes were remarkable. It’s almost as if we were jump-starting the neurons back into function,” study lead author Dr Martin Monti, a professor of psychology and neurosurgery at UCLA, said.
“Until now, the only way to achieve this was a risky surgical procedure known as deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted directly inside the thalamus.
“Our approach directly targets the thalamus but is non-invasive,” he added.
Researchers at UCLA plan to carry out further trials.
What kind of treatment IS activists and sympathizers need is a question worth pondering. Theirs seems to be a madness that has no method to it. If they are fighting for Islam, why should they be the very antithesis of everything that Islam is? The prophet had indeed fought battles. But historians note that the fatalities in all his battles together were less than a thousand. His magnanimity in the aftermath of battles was so exemplary that many of his prisoners of war chose to return to his fold even after they were released. He entered Mecca, the city that had thirsted for his blood and hounded him out, a decade after being forced out of there, as a conqueror without letting an ounce of blood to be spilt. And to boot, he forbade his men even from claiming the encroached houses and properties they had been forced to leave behind in the city of their birth.
When his followers extended the domain of Islam after his death, they did not exactly follow his model of tolerance, but as the famous French Christian historian Amin Malouf pointed out, largely abstained from gratuitous violence. The example of the great Saladin (Salahuddin Ayyoubi) has been legendary. When his enemy commander King Richard lost his horse during the combat, Saladin immediately sent him a horse saying that a king like him should not be fighting on foot. When the English king fell ill, he sent his personal physician to treat him. In the aftermath of the Jerusalem victory, he was so magnanimous that he made it a point to make the city a true cosmopolitan centre by allowing Christians, Jews and Muslim to settle there on equitable terms. In gratitude many Christians chose to call their newborn sons Saladin.
More than on their individual victims, IS is now inflicting an irreparable damage on this tradition. It is in this context that the disappearance of a few Keralite families allegedly to join IS becomes a worrying development. As yet there has been no confirmation of these reports and there are speculations that their port of call is actually Yemen and not Syria. If the latter is true, it would mean less alarm and a little less concern for leaders of Muslim community.
The rulers too have an added responsibility. More than at any point of time, Indian Muslims are now feeling besieged and beleaguered. Questions are being raised from quarters close to the ruling hierarchy about their belongingness and right to exist. As Bobby S Said put it in a similar but different context their very ontology is being challenged by a hauntology. The talk of a Muslim-free India by the likes of Sadhvi Prachi is a grim instance of this. Increasingly, minorities feel like being deprived of not only democratic spaces of protest and articulation but even air pockets to breathe. The government stance on Aligarh and the witch hunt against Zakir Naik are stark reminders of this.
