Researchers at Georgia Tech Seek Better Understanding of Brain Injuries

By Grant Law Office on July 18, 2013

According to Health Canal, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are seeking a better understanding of the brain’s inner workings and the changes brought about by injury. Through this research, they are not only attaining knowledge of the brain’s many complex mechanisms, but also are coming up with better treatments for brain injuries and disorders, afflictions that greatly interest the Atlanta traumatic brain injury attorneys at The Law Offices of Wayne Grant, P.C.

One team is researching the effects of electrical and light stimulation on the brain and its possible usage to reduce or eliminate seizures associated with epilepsy. Two million people in the United States are afflicted with the disorder. Seizures occur when nerve cells in the brain fire abnormally and excessively. The stimulation techniques, if valid, could help patients on whom drug therapies do not work. Experiments will be conducted on an animal model that is experiencing temporal lobe epilepsy.

Another team is basing their research on a phenomenon called adaptation. Adaptation, in relation to neurological science, describes the ability the brain has in quickly switching from the detection of an object to the identification of said object. This ability can be traced to the neurons located at the beginning of the brain’s sensory information pathways and their interactions with one another. The team hopes to gain insight into brain injuries by studying the synchronization of neurons in the brain and how any alterations can result in harmful effects.

The Georgian researchers are also working on probing devices for neurons in tissue samples and living animals, brain information processing models, and studies of brain activity during cognitive tasks.