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Neurological Surgery


News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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Cowabunga!

Surgeon repairs trauma injury from Hawaii surf

Jan. 29, 2007 -- Last July, Tim Russell and his family were enjoying a trip to Kauai, Hawaii, hiking, surfing and enjoying the sunshine. While bodysurfing in a remote area, Russell caught a wave. Then a wave caught him — slamming his head against the sand. When he came up for air, he had lost control of his arms and couldn't swim. Six months later, Russell can lift his arms overhead and out to the side with little or no pain thanks to the surgical expertise of Susan Mackinnon.


Imagine that

Teenager first to play video game by brain only

Oct. 9, 2006 --
Researchers have enabled a 14-year-old  to play a two-dimensional video game  using signals from his brain instead of his hands.
Photo by David Kilper / WUSTL Photo
Researchers have enabled a 14-year-old to play a two-dimensional video game using signals from his brain instead of his hands.
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Teenage boys and computer games go hand-in-hand. Now, a St. Louis-area teenage boy and a computer game have gone hands-off, thanks to a unique experiment conducted by a team of neurosurgeons, neurologists, and engineers at Washington University in St. Louis. The boy, a 14-year-old who suffers from epilepsy, is the first teenager to play a two-dimensional video game, Space Invaders, using only the signals from his brain to make movements. More...


Not for kids

Pediatric neurosurgeons recommend banning children from ATVs

Sept. 7, 2006 --
Neurosurgeons at St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are renewing calls for a ban on use of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) by children under age 16 after a 10-year review of injuries caused by the vehicles.



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Faculty Experts:

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Steven Petersen

James S. McDonnell Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in Neurology

Petersen is chief of the Neuropsychology Division and a pioneer in using brain imaging to identify brain regions that contribute to attention, learning, memory and language. He also investigates the effects of disease and brain damage on these cognitive processes, bridging a range of psychological ...


Expertise: Neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, neuropyschology, brain imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), attention, …

Media assistance: (314) 286-0122 / purdym@wustl.edu


David Gutmann, M.D., Ph.D.

Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology

Gutmann is the founder and director of the Neurofibromatosis Clinical Program, which is dedicated to treating the common inherited tumor predisposition syndrome, neurofibromatosis (NF). Individuals with NF have an increased risk of developing brain tumors and other cancers. As national leader in the ...


Expertise: Brain tumors, cancer genetics, neurofibromatosis, molecular genetics, neurosciences, neurology

Media assistance: (314) 286-0122 / purdym@wustl.edu


John Morris

Director and Principal Investigator, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Department of Neurology

John Morris
Morris
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John C. Morris, M.D., is the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Professor of Pathology and Immunology and of Physical Therapy, and the Director of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Center for Aging, the Memory and Aging Project, and the Memory Diagnostic ...


Expertise: Alzheimer's disease, dementia, memory, aging, mild cognitive impairment

Media assistance: (314) 286-0122 / purdym@wustl.edu


Alexander W. Dromerick

Associate Professor of Neurology and Occupational Therapy

Dromerick
Dromerick

Dromerick is known for his clinical and laboratory research on rehabilitation methods for stroke patients, including a new technique called constraint-induced movement therapy.


Expertise: stroke, neurology, brain injury, occupational therapy, rehabilitation, constraint-induced movement therapy, brain imaging, …

Media assistance: (314) 286-0109 / reckessg@wustl.edu


Dorothy Edwards

Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy and Neurology

Edwards' research focuses on quality of life issues for individuals who have survived serious brain injury. Her research also is directed toward understanding the mechanisms which support independence and quality of life in the community of older adults, specifically minorities.


Expertise: Alzheimer's disease, African Americans, stroke, quality of life, disability, brain injury

Media assistance: /



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Related News Clips:

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Teenager moves video icons by imagination
United Press International and 2 others

Oct. 11, 2006 -- A U.S. boy has become the first teenager to play a two-dimensional video game using only the signals from his brain to make movements.
WUSTL researchers led by neurological surgery professor Eric Leuthardt and biomedical engineering professor Daniel Moran say the boy's achievement might lead to creation of biomedical devices that can control artificial limbs, enabling the movement of a prosthesis by just thinking about it.


devised a technique on humans that for the first time shows just what the brain does when the skull accelerates
Space Daily

Dec. 16, 2005 -- Mechanical engineers at WUSTL along with collaborators, have devised a technique using MRI technology that shows how the human brain reacts when the skull accelerates. The research shows that as the skull accelerates, the numerous vessels, membranes and nerves at the base of the brain, try to pull away, from the spine leading to a significant deformation in the front of the brain. Philip Bayly, Ph.D., Lilyan and E. Lisle Hughes Professor in Engineering, discussed the group's findings Nov. 10, 2005, at the annual meeting of the National Neurotrauma Society in Washington, DC.


Computers obey brain signals from paralyzed people ... and our reporter, too
Associated Press

May 4, 2005 -- Scientists are working on early steps toward a complex but straightforward technological goal: to use electrical signals from the brain as instructions to computers and other machines, allowing paralyzed people to communicate, move around and control their environment literally without moving a muscle. When surgeons at Washington University in St. Louis, in cooperation with Wolpaw, placed tiny electrodes on the surface of the brains of four people recently, they achieved accuracies of 74 percent to 100 percent in an electronic game with just three to 24 minutes of training.


Patients play by power of thought
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) and 20 others

June 16, 2004 -- Using thought alone and with electrodes placed on the surface of the brain, four volunteers were able to control a simple video game, U.S. researchers report. Simply by thinking the word "move," the volunteers played the game.
"We are using pure imagination. These people are not moving their limbs," said Eric Leuthardt, a neurosurgeon at the School of Medicine who worked on the study. Writing in the Journal of Neural Engineering, Leuthardt and Daniel Moran, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Medicine, said the patients learned in minutes how to control a computer cursor.


Amyloid imaging PET scan may help diagnose, prevent Alzheimer's
The Wall Street Journal and 8 others

April 26, 2004 -- A new study tested an amyloid-imaging positron emission tomography (PET) with a new tracer. Amyloid is the protein that is deposited in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Though the study was small, the researchers found a "robust" difference in the amount of amyloid present in the brains of the Alzheimer's patients when compared to the healthy control patients. John Morris, the Friedman Professor of Neurology at the School of Medicine, said the scanning study has "enormous implications." The scans could be used to track the performance of drugs, vaccines and other therapies that break down amyloid or prevent it from forming, Morris said. The technology could also help diagnose Alzheimer's in living people and possibly predict who's likely to get the disease based on their brain chemistry. "Those are all big ifs, but now we have the tool with these imaging molecules," he said.



Washington University in St. LouisSchool of Medicine

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westerhousej@wustl.edu

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Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004


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