This New York Times story describes research that may, in the future, lead to technologies that may help people with memory problems, such as those who have had a traumatic brain injury. Although the technique of brain stimulation has been used before to try to enhance memory function, sometimes it has been found to help and other times to hinder remembering. The current study shows that timing of the stimulation is possibly important, and tends to help memory when “people are in a low or foggy state,” while hindering it otherwise.
The story’s headline misrepresents the findings–at this point, we’re far from knowing if this “pacemaker for the brain” can indeed help memory among people with traumatic brain injury, dementia or other diseases. It also needed more on the cost of brain implant surgery, and the risks associated with the devices and their installation.
This research is a step forward in the field, but it’s a long way from what doctors call “clinical applicability”–meaning that it has been proven safe and effective.
The story could have noted how much it typically costs to implant electrodes in the brain of a patient. According to the University of Michigan, deep brain stimulation implants and surgery can cost “about $30,000 plus physician and MRI fees.” Meanwhile, the National Parkinson Foundation states the all-in cost can reach $50,000 and sometimes up to $100,000 (e.g. for implants on both sides of the brain).
Readers get two sets of numbers on the effect size: Patients who were gently zapped when their brains were learning words during a foggy, “low-functioning state” could remember words 12%-13% better. Stimulation during a clear-minded, “high-functioning state,” however, resulted in 15%-20% worse performance.
What’s missing, however, is a definition and context for these numbers. We had a lot of questions: Do they reflect the number of words recalled? How correct (or incorrect) their order during recall was? Or that people remembered them more or for less time compared to no stimulation? Or some other measure? Were these statistically significant results? Also, how did the researchers determine if a person was experiencing a “high-functioning” or “low-functioning” state?
The story explains that brain stimulation can weaken memory formation, and notes how brain implants require “a delicate procedure” to pull off. However, the risks of brain implant devices aren’t discussed — and they’re significant. According to Johns Hopkins University, surgery to implant electrodes in the brain carries a number of risks, including bleeding in the brain, leaking of spinal fluid into the brain, infection stroke, and more. After surgery, brain implants can cause tingling in the face and limbs, problems with speech or vision, dizziness, and other side effects.
We liked that readers are cautioned that the “reported improvements may not apply broadly” and that the work examined only epilepsy patients — suggesting the technique may not work for people with other conditions, or people in general.
One area of concern that we wish the story had flagged: Readers are told that data from 150 people were used in the study, but it appears the study used data from only 102 of those people, and then only a subset of these people had the stimulation, making it a pretty small sample size to measure effect.
We didn’t detect any disease-mongering in this story.
The end of the scientific article that this story was based on notes that the two senior authors are forming a company “to develop and commercialize brain stimulation therapies for memory restoration.” This should have been included in the story.
Since there are really no alternatives as far as treatment goes, we’ll rate this N/A.
It’s made clear that this study focused on epilepsy patients whose doctors deemed they needed brain-stimulating implants, and that the research may not apply to broader populations.
The story sums up decades of conflicting work on stimulating the brain to improve memory, and how changing the timing of stimulation — specifically, during times when memory encoding may be poor — seems to represent a significant advancement in the field.
No quotes or even framing seem to have been copied from a news release posted by the University of Pennsylvania.
Systematic, Criteria-Driven
We’ve written about the hype of liquid biopsies for years (see link in comment below). And now this…. https://www.statnews.com/2022/01/12/medicare-shouldnt-cover-liquid-biopsies-early-cancer-detection/
Case counts still matter. “(There) are stories that may not be told adequately if only hospitalizations and deaths are emphasized.” @garyschwitzer interviewed by @dbauder of @AP. https://apnews.com/article/omicron-changing-news-outlets-covid-data-da9272f7c4c8a109c3bfb56bed9e9c76
My friend Gary @garyschwitzer wrote to his city council representative in a Minnesota town about a Viva Las Vegas event scheduled for January.
The response he got seems to perfectly capture where we are now.
https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2021/12/2021-ends-with-covid-craziness-in-sports-and-politics/
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like