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Title: Military Plans To Test Brain Implants To Fight Mental Disorders
Source:
NPR
URL Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201 ... ants-to-fight-mental-disorders
Published: May 28, 2014
Author: Jon Hamilton
Post Date: 2014-05-28 08:34:00 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 242
Comments: 14
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is launching a $70 million program to help military personnel with psychiatric disorders using electronic devices implanted in the brain. The goal of the five-year program is to develop new ways of treating problems including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, all of which are common among service members who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. "We've seen far too many times where military personnel have neuropsychiatric disorders and there's very few options," says , a program manager at DARPA. DARPA is known for taking on big technological challenges, from missile defense to creating a business plan for interstellar travel. In 2013, the agency announced it would play a big role in President Obama's to explore the human brain. The new program will fund development of high-tech implanted devices able to both monitor and electrically stimulate specific brain circuits. The effort will be led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and Massachusetts General Hospital. Students at the University of Washington used a protein-folding program initially funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to come up with a treatment for celiac disease. The "RoboSimian" from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has the advantage of being able to grasp things with all four limbs, like a chimp. It will compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The TALON MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) can be transformed from a weaponized robot to one with an arm and gripper by changing out its modules. Simple are already used to help patients with problems including Parkinson's disease. But DARPA wants something much more sophisticated, Sanchez says. "While those devices have been shown to be effective, they are very much built on concepts from the cardiac pacemaker industry," he says. "And we know that the brain is very different than the heart." Working With Epilepsy, Parkinson's Patients The UCSF team will begin its work by studying volunteers who already have probes in their brains as part of treatment for epilepsy or Parkinson's disease. That will allow researchers to "record directly from the brain at a level of resolution that's never [been] done before," says , a neurosurgeon at UCSF. By monitoring the electrical activity of brain cells, the researchers will be able to study how brain circuits behave in real time, Chang says. And because many of the volunteers also have depression, anxiety and other problems, it should be possible to figure out how these conditions have changed specific circuits in the brain, Chang says. "If we are able to understand how the circuit has gone awry, that may give us some very critical clues as to how we may be able to reverse that," he says. Once the scientists have those clues, they hope to design tiny electronic implants that can stimulate the cells in faulty brain circuits. "We know that once you start putting stimulation into the brain, the brain will change in response," Chang says. That sort of change, known as plasticity, is what allows the brain to learn and adapt throughout our lives. And a device that can deliver the right kind of stimulation to the right brain cells should be able to "heal" malfunctioning brain circuits, Chang says. At first, the DARPA program will focus on patients with depression, anxiety and symptoms of PTSD. Later, the plan calls for treating conditions including chronic pain and even traumatic brain injury.
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#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Maybe research should start with new recruits to find out why they're crazy enough to enlist to learn how to kill people.
No need to chip the newbies, they need a job with benefits. That is the only reason I can think of for enlisting in today's military.
Having been born and raised in the lowest rung of society, it is readily apparent to me. Lets check the voters for brain strength. Of Presidents, 75% of them have been military men. Those without military experience in our time are Clinton and Obongo. They have a proven track record of killing people. I forgot FDR and Wilson, they killed a lot of people, also never military. In the past, our very first revered president was George Washington, then came Lincoln, an Indian hunter before politics. Someone out there voted for all of them, and paid the killers.
There are some with a hero complex to consider, also. Those are usually the ones who come home and become cops.
Support bacteria. (The world needs more culture)
If DARPA is involved, it is more likely a cover for something more sinister, like creating more mind-controlled assassins:
"...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm
I would also toss Bush #43 in with this crew since his stint w/the Alabama National Guard? was strictly on paper.
Indeed... Having been around since FDR, in my opinion, that SOB Bush did more harm to this country than any other president. Obama is just a plain stupid stooge, Bush was a cunning bastard.
I believe that it was the Texas Air National Guard where he didn't serve so well. He was in the AL working on poppy's re-election campaign, if olde memory serves... “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
Bush started out in Texas air guard. When he enlisted, that unit had one opening for the lowest ranking enlisted man. There were about 900 applicants, Bush just happened to get it. Right.
Bush transferred to Alabama NG to finish his commitment. He just never showed up.
He was in the AL working on poppy's re-election campaign, if olde memory serves... Well done Lod. Your knowledge of Bush is better than mine.
The Demon Seed.
Great linkage, thanks.
Which means electing politicians who fund public works like high-speed rail, safer roads, hydro and water diversion instead of voting for political psychos who use recruits to fulfill a treasonous bargain with Jew duals who "elect" and then want America to fight Israel's enemies.
#2. To: Tatarewicz (#1)
#3. To: Tatarewicz, Jethro Tull (#1)
Maybe research should start with new recruits to find out why they're crazy enough to enlist to learn how to kill people.
#4. To: Jethro Tull (#2)
#5. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
#6. To: Cynicom (#3)
Of Presidents, 75% of them have been military men. Those without military experience in our time are Clinton and Obongo. They have a proven track record of killing people. I forgot FDR and Wilson, they killed a lot of people, also never military.
#7. To: Jethro Tull (#6)
I would also toss Bush #43 in with this crew since his stint w/the Alabama National Guard? was strictly on paper.
#8. To: Jethro Tull (#6)
(Edited)
#9. To: Jethro Tull (#6)
#10. To: Lod (#8)
#11. To: Lod, Cyni, 4 (#8)
I believe that it was the Texas Air National Guard where he didn't serve so well.
#12. To: Cynicom (#10)
Bush transferred to Alabama NG to finish his commitment.
#13. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#5)
#14. To: Jethro Tull (#2)
they need a job with benefits. That is the only reason I can think of for enlisting in today's military.
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