سائنس دانوں نے آزادانہ طور پر حرکت کرنے والے آکٹوپس سے دماغی سرگرمی کو کامیابی کے ساتھ ریکارڈ کیا ہے، یہ ایک ایسا کارنامہ ہے جو الیکٹروڈز اور ڈیٹا لاگر کو براہ راست مخلوقات میں لگا کر ممکن ہوا ہے۔
یہ مطالعہ آن لائن شائع ہوا۔ موجودہ حیاتیات 23 فروری، یہ معلوم کرنے میں ایک اہم قدم ہے کہ آکٹوپس کے دماغ کس طرح اپنے رویے کو کنٹرول کرتے ہیں، اور انٹیلی جنس اور ادراک کے وقوع پذیر ہونے کے لیے درکار مشترکہ اصولوں کا سراغ فراہم کر سکتے ہیں۔
\”اگر ہم یہ سمجھنا چاہتے ہیں کہ دماغ کیسے کام کرتا ہے، تو آکٹوپس ممالیہ جانوروں کے مقابلے میں مطالعہ کرنے کے لیے بہترین جانور ہیں۔ ان کا دماغ بڑا، حیرت انگیز طور پر منفرد جسم، اور جدید علمی صلاحیتیں ہیں جو فقاری جانوروں سے بالکل مختلف طریقے سے تیار ہوئی ہیں۔\” اوکیناوا انسٹی ٹیوٹ آف سائنس اینڈ ٹیکنالوجی (OIST) میں طبیعیات اور حیاتیات یونٹ میں پہلے مصنف اور سابق پوسٹ ڈاکٹرل محقق ڈاکٹر تمر گٹنک نے کہا۔
لیکن آکٹوپس کی دماغی لہروں کی پیمائش کرنا ایک حقیقی تکنیکی چیلنج ثابت ہوا ہے۔ کشیرکا جانوروں کے برعکس، آکٹوپس نرم جسم والے ہوتے ہیں، اس لیے ان کے پاس کوئی کھوپڑی نہیں ہوتی کہ وہ ریکارڈنگ کے آلات کو اس پر لنگر انداز کر سکیں، تاکہ اسے ہٹایا جا سکے۔
ڈاکٹر گٹنک نے کہا، \”آکٹوپس کے آٹھ طاقتور اور انتہائی لچکدار بازو ہوتے ہیں، جو ان کے جسم پر کسی بھی جگہ تک پہنچ سکتے ہیں۔\” \”اگر ہم نے ان کے ساتھ تاریں جوڑنے کی کوشش کی تو وہ فوراً پھٹ جائیں گے، اس لیے ہمیں آلات کو ان کی جلد کے نیچے رکھ کر، ان کی پہنچ سے مکمل طور پر دور کرنے کا ایک طریقہ درکار ہے۔\”
محققین نے حل کے طور پر چھوٹے اور ہلکے وزن والے ڈیٹا لاگرز کو حل کیا، جو اصل میں پرواز کے دوران پرندوں کی دماغی سرگرمی کو ٹریک کرنے کے لیے ڈیزائن کیے گئے تھے۔ ٹیم نے آلات کو واٹر پروف بنانے کے لیے ڈھال لیا، لیکن پھر بھی وہ اتنے چھوٹے ہیں کہ آکٹوپس کے اندر آسانی سے فٹ ہو جائیں۔ بیٹریاں، جنہیں کم ہوا والے ماحول میں کام کرنے کی ضرورت تھی، 12 گھنٹے تک مسلسل ریکارڈنگ کی اجازت دیتی ہے۔
محققین نے انتخاب کیا۔ آکٹوپس سیانا, زیادہ عام طور پر دن آکٹوپس کے طور پر جانا جاتا ہے، ان کے ماڈل جانور کے طور پر، اس کے بڑے سائز کی وجہ سے. انہوں نے تین آکٹوپس کو بے ہوشی کی اور ایک لاگر کو مینٹل کی پٹھوں کی دیوار میں ایک گہا میں لگایا۔ اس کے بعد سائنسدانوں نے الیکٹروڈز کو آکٹوپس کے دماغ کے ایک حصے میں لگایا جسے عمودی لاب اور میڈین سپریئر فرنٹل لاب کہا جاتا ہے، جو سب سے زیادہ قابل رسائی علاقہ ہے۔ دماغ کا یہ خطہ بصری سیکھنے اور یادداشت کے لیے بھی اہم سمجھا جاتا ہے، جو دماغی عمل ہیں جن کو سمجھنے میں ڈاکٹر گٹنک خاص طور پر دلچسپی رکھتے ہیں۔
سرجری مکمل ہونے کے بعد، آکٹوپس کو ان کے گھر کے ٹینک میں واپس لایا گیا اور ویڈیو کے ذریعے ان کی نگرانی کی گئی۔ پانچ منٹ کے بعد، آکٹوپس صحت یاب ہو گئے اور اگلے 12 گھنٹے سوتے، کھاتے اور اپنے ٹینک کے گرد گھومتے ہوئے گزارے، کیونکہ ان کی دماغی سرگرمی ریکارڈ کی گئی تھی۔ اس کے بعد لاگر اور الیکٹروڈ کو آکٹوپس سے ہٹا دیا گیا، اور ڈیٹا کو ویڈیو کے ساتھ ہم آہنگ کیا گیا۔
محققین نے دماغی سرگرمیوں کے کئی الگ الگ نمونوں کی نشاندہی کی، جن میں سے کچھ سائز اور شکل میں ممالیہ جانوروں میں دیکھے جانے والوں سے ملتے جلتے تھے، جب کہ دیگر بہت دیرپا، سست دوغلے تھے جن کا پہلے بیان نہیں کیا گیا تھا۔
محققین ابھی تک دماغی سرگرمیوں کے ان نمونوں کو ویڈیوز کے مخصوص طرز عمل سے جوڑنے کے قابل نہیں تھے۔ تاہم، یہ مکمل طور پر حیران کن نہیں ہے، ڈاکٹر گٹنک نے وضاحت کی، کیونکہ انہیں جانوروں سے مخصوص سیکھنے کے کام کرنے کی ضرورت نہیں تھی۔
\”یہ ایک ایسا شعبہ ہے جو سیکھنے اور یادداشت سے وابستہ ہے، اس لیے اس سرکٹ کو دریافت کرنے کے لیے، ہمیں واقعی آکٹوپس کے ساتھ بار بار یادداشت کے کام کرنے کی ضرورت ہے۔ یہ وہ چیز ہے جسے ہم بہت جلد کرنے کی امید کر رہے ہیں!\”
محققین کا یہ بھی ماننا ہے کہ آزادانہ طور پر حرکت کرنے والے آکٹوپس سے دماغی سرگرمی کو ریکارڈ کرنے کا یہ طریقہ آکٹوپس کی دوسری نسلوں میں استعمال کیا جا سکتا ہے اور یہ آکٹوپس کے ادراک کے بہت سے دوسرے شعبوں میں سوالات کو حل کرنے میں مدد دے سکتا ہے، بشمول وہ اپنے جسم اور بازوؤں کی حرکت کو کیسے سیکھتے ہیں، سماجی بناتے ہیں اور کنٹرول کرتے ہیں۔ .
\”یہ واقعی ایک اہم مطالعہ ہے، لیکن یہ صرف پہلا قدم ہے،\” پروفیسر مائیکل کوبا نے کہا، جنہوں نے OIST فزکس اینڈ بائیولوجی یونٹ میں اس پروجیکٹ کی قیادت کی اور اب نیپلز فیڈریکو II یونیورسٹی میں جاری ہے۔ \”آکٹوپس بہت ہوشیار ہیں، لیکن اس وقت، ہم ان کے دماغ کے کام کرنے کے بارے میں بہت کم جانتے ہیں۔ اس تکنیک کا مطلب ہے کہ اب ہمارے پاس ان کے دماغ میں جھانکنے کی صلاحیت ہے جب وہ مخصوص کام کر رہے ہیں۔ یہ واقعی دلچسپ اور طاقتور ہے۔\”
اس مطالعہ میں جاپان، اٹلی، جرمنی، یوکرین اور سوئٹزرلینڈ کے محققین کے درمیان بین الاقوامی تعاون شامل تھا۔
Before surgery, a metal frame was attached to Harry Forestell’s head to keep it still during an MRI scan. During surgery, the frame was bolted to the surgical table. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
This First Person article is written by Harry Forestell, host of CBC News New Brunswick at Six, who draws upon his experiences with Parkinson\’s disease.
My latest party trick is a real attention grabber.
It\’s a vivid illustration of the before and after effects of my recent treatment for Parkinson\’s disease. Proof of just how much a little poking around in the brain can achieve.
The treatment is called deep brain stimulation (DBS). It involves implanting thin electrodes into the brain where they emit tiny electrical pulses. Those pulses, applied continuously to just the right section of grey matter, stimulate centres in the brain that control signals sent to your muscles. In the basal ganglia, the engine house of the brain, signals are sent to the body ordering everything from speaking, to swallowing, to walking and touching. When those signals don\’t get through, or when the instructions get scrambled, the body\’s reaction can be cruel. Hands tremble uncontrollably, legs shake, walking becomes increasingly difficult, even swallowing is a challenge.
These are all early symptoms of Parkinson\’s disease and the list is by no means exhaustive.
Parkinson\’s is considered a chronic but not fatal disease. As neurologists will often explain, you will die with Parkinson\’s, not from Parkinson\’s. While true, it doesn\’t really capture the creeping, insidious progress of the disease as it deprives victims of the ability to control their own bodies.
Medical stories like this have always been a source of fascination for me. I worked for several years as a medicine and science reporter, covering stories that included the panic over mad cow disease in the U.K. I produced radio features on brain development and decay.
Little did I know that I eventually would be reporting on my own brain malady.
A shock of a diagnosis, and a relief
The day my diagnosis of Parkinson\’s disease was officially confirmed came as much of a relief as a shock.
It was 2015 and for the previous two years, my wife Jenny and I had been careering back and forth between hope and despair. My Fredericton neurologist, Dr. Eva Pniak, a patient and persevering soul, suspected Parkinson\’s, but suggested the problems I experienced walking and with my tremoring hands could also be explained by a modestly more benign condition called essential tremor.
These are just some of the drugs used to control Parkinson\’s disease. While levodopa is initially the most effective medication, it produces side effects that require other drugs that produce their own side effects. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
She referred me to a specialist in Toronto where the diagnosis was conclusive.
At 53, I had Parkinson\’s.
From leaping out of a tree to dancing the tango, very little happens in the body without first being ordered by the basal ganglia. Those orders are sent at the speed of light through nerve networks with the help of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. It is the as-yet unexplained decline in the brain\’s dopamine-producing cells that leads to movement disorders like Parkinson\’s.
It\’s a simple equation: no dopamine, no movement.
With Parkinson\’s, those dopamine cells start quietly dying off years before symptoms first appear. Scientists aren\’t certain why this happens, or why the process cannot be stopped or slowed.
Doctors can replace some of the lost dopamine with a medication called levodopa, but it causes a side effect known as dyskinesia — sudden uncontrolled muscle movements in the arms and upper body that create a writhing, torquing motion. As doctors increase doses of levodopa to stave off Parkinson\’s tremors, dyskinesia increases.
The payoff is in quality of life for patients
Neurologists have been experimenting with DBS to treat Parkinson\’s and other movement disorders for nearly 40 years. In 1997, the U.S.-based Food and Drug Administration approved DBS to treat Parkinson\’s disease.
Why not more? The simple reason is that it is a treatment involving intricate brain surgery by highly specialized surgical teams and requiring considerable aftercare.
WATCH | How deep brain stimulation can help overcome debilitating effects of Parkinson\’s:
See the almost instantaneous effects of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease treatment
Harry Forestell shows how DBS therapy can work in daily life — and demonstrates what happens when he turns it off.
\”The surgical expertise is extremely important,\” he said.
\”You have to have a surgeon that knows how to do the procedure and knows how to put the electrodes in the right spot. But then after the surgery, you need an expertise in doing all of the programming and adjusting the stimulators and also adjusting the medication doses which typically change after the operation,\” he said.
\”So it\’s a very complicated procedure that requires a team and it\’s the neurologist and the nurses after the surgery that are doing a great deal of the work in optimizing the responses.\”
It is a procedure, Lang points out, that requires support from provincial governments. The payoff is a treatment that can offer major improvements in quality of life for Parkinson\’s patients.
\”The Ontario government has appreciated the importance,\” said Lang, adding he feels lucky to have a team of expert neurosurgeons, neurologists, nurses and others to support patients.
\”The government recognized the importance of this technique and have provided what\’s called volume-based funding to allow us to operate on a much larger number than most centres.\”
My own experience is a vivid illustration of the relief DBS can bring to some Parkinson\’s patients.
Holes in my head
I entered Toronto Western Hospital on Sept. 30, 2022 with an idea of what was going to happen, but no real appreciation of what it would feel or sound like.
A metal structure was bolted to Forestell\’s skull prior to surgery at Toronto Western Hospital in September. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
I knew at some point before the end of the day someone was going to drill a hole in my head. At least one hole. Maybe two.
I was forewarned by reliable parties that the sound of that drilling would be akin to an airplane taking off. More like Concorde taking off inside my head!
Before surgery I had a metal structure bolted to my skull, not unlike the square lightshade at the top of a lamppost.
This was meant to hold my head steady during the MRI scan and throughout the more delicate procedure of skewering my brain without damaging the useful bits.
In the surgical suite there was a bustle of activity as half a dozen surgeons and nursing staff prepared for the procedure. My head head frame was bolted to the surgical table, and plastic sheets were draped over me to create an antiseptic site for the skull opening.
The drilling of two nickel-sized holes in my skull was every bit as loud as I had been warned. But no pain, just a feeling of pressure.
\”Somewhere in the middle of all this is me, wide awake,” says Forestell. The clear plastic barrier divides the room into sterile and non-sterile zones. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
In the back of the suite, a cluster of medical IT specialists sat in front of computer screens ready to track and to provide feedback and directions as to where the probes needed to go in my brain.
I know all of this because I was awake — wide awake — for the duration of the six-hour long surgery. I have spent plenty of time around hospitals, both as a patient and as the c
hild of a hospital worker. I\’ve covered many medical stories as a reporter. So rather than fear, the prospect of this procedure filled me with curiosity. How would it feel? What would it change? Would it work?
A strange experience indeed
The surgical suite hummed with the normal hubbub of a workplace. The surgeons and I kept up an amiable conversation as I asked questions about what was happening. In the background, a steady staccato, like the noise of a Geiger counter, attested to the continuing activity in my brain.
Clicks coming through a loudspeaker amplified the activity of each busy cell.
It was a strange experience to have someone rooting through your brain.
A closer look at how the surgeons implant the sensors on Forestell’s brain that will eventually provide the electrical impulses to help override some of the physical symptoms of Parkinson\’s. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
There was no feeling to it as the brain has no pain sensors. But as the probes slid into place, there were tell-tale signs that gave away what was happening — most commonly a tingling feeling in an arm or leg — as the surgeons carefully threaded the electrodes through my brain to reach the basal ganglia.
Along the way they asked me whether I could recite the days of the week, the months of the year backwards skipping every second month, and the progression of prime numbers to the fifth integer.
Once the probes were in place, it was time to install the wiring and other hardware. For this part of the surgery, anesthetic was required and I was put soundly to sleep. Both probes are attached to wires that are threaded through the skull and under the skin behind the ear, down the neck, over the clavicle and finally are plugged into a battery-operated pulse generator — similar to a pacemaker — that sits just under the skin of the chest. While the surgery involves all the usual risks of infection, hemorrhage, stroke and heart attack, side effects are rare.
A shocking conclusion
So, does it work?
Well, you can see the party trick I\’ve been boasting about in the video above. You be the judge.
Here is how it works.
Once the electrodes have been implanted in the brain, their ability to deliver the required electrical stimulation is controlled by a pulse transmitter and an adapted cellphone.
Forestell one week post-operation. Aside from what he describes as a terrible haircut, the only sign of surgical intervention is the ‘railway track’ of staples closing the wound. The procedure took less than 48 hours from hospital check-in to discharge. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
The cellphone carries an app that controls the frequency of the electrical stimulation of the basal ganglia. The stimulator is set to discharge regular electrical pulses day and night that miraculously override or disrupt the scrambled neural instructions that are a Parkinson\’s hallmark.
Suddenly I am able to walk normally. There are no tremors. The annoying signs of dyskinesia — those involuntary movements I described above — seem to disappear.
WATCH | In September 2022, before undergoing DBS, Harry Forestell described to his audiences what he was undertaking:
Harry Forestell opens up about the next stage in his treatment for Parkinson\’s
The host of CBC New Brunswick News at 6 speaks with Rachel Cave about how deep brain stimulation is expected to help him deal with his Parkinson\’s disease diagnosis.
Regaining control of motor functions is nothing short of a miracle, but it will not work for every Parkinson\’s patient. Those with other conditions are not suited for DBS. It alleviates motor symptoms most successfully among those who respond well to levodopa. Where it is successful in those cases, it means a decrease in that drug and its side effects.
I have been able to cut my medication in half and I recently
returned to work after four months away. I sleep soundly and, while I still tire easily, my mood has brightened.
Parkinson\’s disease will continue to dog my life. DBS may allow me another 10 or 15 years without disabling tremors, though they will probably return at some point as they continue to grow in intensity. There are other insidious effects of Parkinson\’s that are not affected by DBS.
But for the time being, it is as though the disease is caged.
On a leash.
I can hear it barking, but for now at least, it can\’t bite me.
Do you have a compelling personal story that can bring understanding or help others? Here\’s more info on how to pitch to us.
Before surgery, a metal frame was attached to Harry Forestell’s head to keep it still during an MRI scan. During surgery, the frame was bolted to the surgical table. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
This First Person article is written by Harry Forestell, host of CBC News New Brunswick at Six, who draws upon his experiences with Parkinson\’s disease.
My latest party trick is a real attention grabber.
It\’s a vivid illustration of the before and after effects of my recent treatment for Parkinson\’s disease. Proof of just how much a little poking around in the brain can achieve.
The treatment is called deep brain stimulation (DBS). It involves implanting thin electrodes into the brain where they emit tiny electrical pulses. Those pulses, applied continuously to just the right section of grey matter, stimulate centres in the brain that control signals sent to your muscles. In the basal ganglia, the engine house of the brain, signals are sent to the body ordering everything from speaking, to swallowing, to walking and touching. When those signals don\’t get through, or when the instructions get scrambled, the body\’s reaction can be cruel. Hands tremble uncontrollably, legs shake, walking becomes increasingly difficult, even swallowing is a challenge.
These are all early symptoms of Parkinson\’s disease and the list is by no means exhaustive.
Parkinson\’s is considered a chronic but not fatal disease. As neurologists will often explain, you will die with Parkinson\’s, not from Parkinson\’s. While true, it doesn\’t really capture the creeping, insidious progress of the disease as it deprives victims of the ability to control their own bodies.
Medical stories like this have always been a source of fascination for me. I worked for several years as a medicine and science reporter, covering stories that included the panic over mad cow disease in the U.K. I produced radio features on brain development and decay.
Little did I know that I eventually would be reporting on my own brain malady.
A shock of a diagnosis, and a relief
The day my diagnosis of Parkinson\’s disease was officially confirmed came as much of a relief as a shock.
It was 2015 and for the previous two years, my wife Jenny and I had been careering back and forth between hope and despair. My Fredericton neurologist, Dr. Eva Pniak, a patient and persevering soul, suspected Parkinson\’s, but suggested the problems I experienced walking and with my tremoring hands could also be explained by a modestly more benign condition called essential tremor.
These are just some of the drugs used to control Parkinson\’s disease. While levodopa is initially the most effective medication, it produces side effects that require other drugs that produce their own side effects. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
She referred me to a specialist in Toronto where the diagnosis was conclusive.
At 53, I had Parkinson\’s.
From leaping out of a tree to dancing the tango, very little happens in the body without first being ordered by the basal ganglia. Those orders are sent at the speed of light through nerve networks with the help of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. It is the as-yet unexplained decline in the brain\’s dopamine-producing cells that leads to movement disorders like Parkinson\’s.
It\’s a simple equation: no dopamine, no movement.
With Parkinson\’s, those dopamine cells start quietly dying off years before symptoms first appear. Scientists aren\’t certain why this happens, or why the process cannot be stopped or slowed.
Doctors can replace some of the lost dopamine with a medication called levodopa, but it causes a side effect known as dyskinesia — sudden uncontrolled muscle movements in the arms and upper body that create a writhing, torquing motion. As doctors increase doses of levodopa to stave off Parkinson\’s tremors, dyskinesia increases.
The payoff is in quality of life for patients
Neurologists have been experimenting with DBS to treat Parkinson\’s and other movement disorders for nearly 40 years. In 1997, the U.S.-based Food and Drug Administration approved DBS to treat Parkinson\’s disease.
Why not more? The simple reason is that it is a treatment involving intricate brain surgery by highly specialized surgical teams and requiring considerable aftercare.
WATCH | How deep brain stimulation can help overcome debilitating effects of Parkinson\’s:
See the almost instantaneous effects of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease treatment
Harry Forestell shows how DBS therapy can work in daily life — and demonstrates what happens when he turns it off.
\”The surgical expertise is extremely important,\” he said.
\”You have to have a surgeon that knows how to do the procedure and knows how to put the electrodes in the right spot. But then after the surgery, you need an expertise in doing all of the programming and adjusting the stimulators and also adjusting the medication doses which typically change after the operation,\” he said.
\”So it\’s a very complicated procedure that requires a team and it\’s the neurologist and the nurses after the surgery that are doing a great deal of the work in optimizing the responses.\”
It is a procedure, Lang points out, that requires support from provincial governments. The payoff is a treatment that can offer major improvements in quality of life for Parkinson\’s patients.
\”The Ontario government has appreciated the importance,\” said Lang, adding he feels lucky to have a team of expert neurosurgeons, neurologists, nurses and others to support patients.
\”The government recognized the importance of this technique and have provided what\’s called volume-based funding to allow us to operate on a much larger number than most centres.\”
My own experience is a vivid illustration of the relief DBS can bring to some Parkinson\’s patients.
Holes in my head
I entered Toronto Western Hospital on Sept. 30, 2022 with an idea of what was going to happen, but no real appreciation of what it would feel or sound like.
A metal structure was bolted to Forestell\’s skull prior to surgery at Toronto Western Hospital in September. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
I knew at some point before the end of the day someone was going to drill a hole in my head. At least one hole. Maybe two.
I was forewarned by reliable parties that the sound of that drilling would be akin to an airplane taking off. More like Concorde taking off inside my head!
Before surgery I had a metal structure bolted to my skull, not unlike the square lightshade at the top of a lamppost.
This was meant to hold my head steady during the MRI scan and throughout the more delicate procedure of skewering my brain without damaging the useful bits.
In the surgical suite there was a bustle of activity as half a dozen surgeons and nursing staff prepared for the procedure. My head head frame was bolted to the surgical table, and plastic sheets were draped over me to create an antiseptic site for the skull opening.
The drilling of two nickel-sized holes in my skull was every bit as loud as I had been warned. But no pain, just a feeling of pressure.
\”Somewhere in the middle of all this is me, wide awake,” says Forestell. The clear plastic barrier divides the room into sterile and non-sterile zones. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
In the back of the suite, a cluster of medical IT specialists sat in front of computer screens ready to track and to provide feedback and directions as to where the probes needed to go in my brain.
I know all of this because I was awake — wide awake — for the duration of the six-hour long surgery. I have spent plenty of time around hospitals, both as a patient and as the c
hild of a hospital worker. I\’ve covered many medical stories as a reporter. So rather than fear, the prospect of this procedure filled me with curiosity. How would it feel? What would it change? Would it work?
A strange experience indeed
The surgical suite hummed with the normal hubbub of a workplace. The surgeons and I kept up an amiable conversation as I asked questions about what was happening. In the background, a steady staccato, like the noise of a Geiger counter, attested to the continuing activity in my brain.
Clicks coming through a loudspeaker amplified the activity of each busy cell.
It was a strange experience to have someone rooting through your brain.
A closer look at how the surgeons implant the sensors on Forestell’s brain that will eventually provide the electrical impulses to help override some of the physical symptoms of Parkinson\’s. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
There was no feeling to it as the brain has no pain sensors. But as the probes slid into place, there were tell-tale signs that gave away what was happening — most commonly a tingling feeling in an arm or leg — as the surgeons carefully threaded the electrodes through my brain to reach the basal ganglia.
Along the way they asked me whether I could recite the days of the week, the months of the year backwards skipping every second month, and the progression of prime numbers to the fifth integer.
Once the probes were in place, it was time to install the wiring and other hardware. For this part of the surgery, anesthetic was required and I was put soundly to sleep. Both probes are attached to wires that are threaded through the skull and under the skin behind the ear, down the neck, over the clavicle and finally are plugged into a battery-operated pulse generator — similar to a pacemaker — that sits just under the skin of the chest. While the surgery involves all the usual risks of infection, hemorrhage, stroke and heart attack, side effects are rare.
A shocking conclusion
So, does it work?
Well, you can see the party trick I\’ve been boasting about in the video above. You be the judge.
Here is how it works.
Once the electrodes have been implanted in the brain, their ability to deliver the required electrical stimulation is controlled by a pulse transmitter and an adapted cellphone.
Forestell one week post-operation. Aside from what he describes as a terrible haircut, the only sign of surgical intervention is the ‘railway track’ of staples closing the wound. The procedure took less than 48 hours from hospital check-in to discharge. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
The cellphone carries an app that controls the frequency of the electrical stimulation of the basal ganglia. The stimulator is set to discharge regular electrical pulses day and night that miraculously override or disrupt the scrambled neural instructions that are a Parkinson\’s hallmark.
Suddenly I am able to walk normally. There are no tremors. The annoying signs of dyskinesia — those involuntary movements I described above — seem to disappear.
WATCH | In September 2022, before undergoing DBS, Harry Forestell described to his audiences what he was undertaking:
Harry Forestell opens up about the next stage in his treatment for Parkinson\’s
The host of CBC New Brunswick News at 6 speaks with Rachel Cave about how deep brain stimulation is expected to help him deal with his Parkinson\’s disease diagnosis.
Regaining control of motor functions is nothing short of a miracle, but it will not work for every Parkinson\’s patient. Those with other conditions are not suited for DBS. It alleviates motor symptoms most successfully among those who respond well to levodopa. Where it is successful in those cases, it means a decrease in that drug and its side effects.
I have been able to cut my medication in half and I recently
returned to work after four months away. I sleep soundly and, while I still tire easily, my mood has brightened.
Parkinson\’s disease will continue to dog my life. DBS may allow me another 10 or 15 years without disabling tremors, though they will probably return at some point as they continue to grow in intensity. There are other insidious effects of Parkinson\’s that are not affected by DBS.
But for the time being, it is as though the disease is caged.
On a leash.
I can hear it barking, but for now at least, it can\’t bite me.
Do you have a compelling personal story that can bring understanding or help others? Here\’s more info on how to pitch to us.
Before surgery, a metal frame was attached to Harry Forestell’s head to keep it still during an MRI scan. During surgery, the frame was bolted to the surgical table. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
This First Person article is written by Harry Forestell, host of CBC News New Brunswick at Six, who draws upon his experiences with Parkinson\’s disease.
My latest party trick is a real attention grabber.
It\’s a vivid illustration of the before and after effects of my recent treatment for Parkinson\’s disease. Proof of just how much a little poking around in the brain can achieve.
The treatment is called deep brain stimulation (DBS). It involves implanting thin electrodes into the brain where they emit tiny electrical pulses. Those pulses, applied continuously to just the right section of grey matter, stimulate centres in the brain that control signals sent to your muscles. In the basal ganglia, the engine house of the brain, signals are sent to the body ordering everything from speaking, to swallowing, to walking and touching. When those signals don\’t get through, or when the instructions get scrambled, the body\’s reaction can be cruel. Hands tremble uncontrollably, legs shake, walking becomes increasingly difficult, even swallowing is a challenge.
These are all early symptoms of Parkinson\’s disease and the list is by no means exhaustive.
Parkinson\’s is considered a chronic but not fatal disease. As neurologists will often explain, you will die with Parkinson\’s, not from Parkinson\’s. While true, it doesn\’t really capture the creeping, insidious progress of the disease as it deprives victims of the ability to control their own bodies.
Medical stories like this have always been a source of fascination for me. I worked for several years as a medicine and science reporter, covering stories that included the panic over mad cow disease in the U.K. I produced radio features on brain development and decay.
Little did I know that I eventually would be reporting on my own brain malady.
A shock of a diagnosis, and a relief
The day my diagnosis of Parkinson\’s disease was officially confirmed came as much of a relief as a shock.
It was 2015 and for the previous two years, my wife Jenny and I had been careering back and forth between hope and despair. My Fredericton neurologist, Dr. Eva Pniak, a patient and persevering soul, suspected Parkinson\’s, but suggested the problems I experienced walking and with my tremoring hands could also be explained by a modestly more benign condition called essential tremor.
These are just some of the drugs used to control Parkinson\’s disease. While levodopa is initially the most effective medication, it produces side effects that require other drugs that produce their own side effects. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
She referred me to a specialist in Toronto where the diagnosis was conclusive.
At 53, I had Parkinson\’s.
From leaping out of a tree to dancing the tango, very little happens in the body without first being ordered by the basal ganglia. Those orders are sent at the speed of light through nerve networks with the help of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. It is the as-yet unexplained decline in the brain\’s dopamine-producing cells that leads to movement disorders like Parkinson\’s.
It\’s a simple equation: no dopamine, no movement.
With Parkinson\’s, those dopamine cells start quietly dying off years before symptoms first appear. Scientists aren\’t certain why this happens, or why the process cannot be stopped or slowed.
Doctors can replace some of the lost dopamine with a medication called levodopa, but it causes a side effect known as dyskinesia — sudden uncontrolled muscle movements in the arms and upper body that create a writhing, torquing motion. As doctors increase doses of levodopa to stave off Parkinson\’s tremors, dyskinesia increases.
The payoff is in quality of life for patients
Neurologists have been experimenting with DBS to treat Parkinson\’s and other movement disorders for nearly 40 years. In 1997, the U.S.-based Food and Drug Administration approved DBS to treat Parkinson\’s disease.
Why not more? The simple reason is that it is a treatment involving intricate brain surgery by highly specialized surgical teams and requiring considerable aftercare.
WATCH | How deep brain stimulation can help overcome debilitating effects of Parkinson\’s:
See the almost instantaneous effects of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease treatment
Harry Forestell shows how DBS therapy can work in daily life — and demonstrates what happens when he turns it off.
\”The surgical expertise is extremely important,\” he said.
\”You have to have a surgeon that knows how to do the procedure and knows how to put the electrodes in the right spot. But then after the surgery, you need an expertise in doing all of the programming and adjusting the stimulators and also adjusting the medication doses which typically change after the operation,\” he said.
\”So it\’s a very complicated procedure that requires a team and it\’s the neurologist and the nurses after the surgery that are doing a great deal of the work in optimizing the responses.\”
It is a procedure, Lang points out, that requires support from provincial governments. The payoff is a treatment that can offer major improvements in quality of life for Parkinson\’s patients.
\”The Ontario government has appreciated the importance,\” said Lang, adding he feels lucky to have a team of expert neurosurgeons, neurologists, nurses and others to support patients.
\”The government recognized the importance of this technique and have provided what\’s called volume-based funding to allow us to operate on a much larger number than most centres.\”
My own experience is a vivid illustration of the relief DBS can bring to some Parkinson\’s patients.
Holes in my head
I entered Toronto Western Hospital on Sept. 30, 2022 with an idea of what was going to happen, but no real appreciation of what it would feel or sound like.
A metal structure was bolted to Forestell\’s skull prior to surgery at Toronto Western Hospital in September. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
I knew at some point before the end of the day someone was going to drill a hole in my head. At least one hole. Maybe two.
I was forewarned by reliable parties that the sound of that drilling would be akin to an airplane taking off. More like Concorde taking off inside my head!
Before surgery I had a metal structure bolted to my skull, not unlike the square lightshade at the top of a lamppost.
This was meant to hold my head steady during the MRI scan and throughout the more delicate procedure of skewering my brain without damaging the useful bits.
In the surgical suite there was a bustle of activity as half a dozen surgeons and nursing staff prepared for the procedure. My head head frame was bolted to the surgical table, and plastic sheets were draped over me to create an antiseptic site for the skull opening.
The drilling of two nickel-sized holes in my skull was every bit as loud as I had been warned. But no pain, just a feeling of pressure.
\”Somewhere in the middle of all this is me, wide awake,” says Forestell. The clear plastic barrier divides the room into sterile and non-sterile zones. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
In the back of the suite, a cluster of medical IT specialists sat in front of computer screens ready to track and to provide feedback and directions as to where the probes needed to go in my brain.
I know all of this because I was awake — wide awake — for the duration of the six-hour long surgery. I have spent plenty of time around hospitals, both as a patient and as the c
hild of a hospital worker. I\’ve covered many medical stories as a reporter. So rather than fear, the prospect of this procedure filled me with curiosity. How would it feel? What would it change? Would it work?
A strange experience indeed
The surgical suite hummed with the normal hubbub of a workplace. The surgeons and I kept up an amiable conversation as I asked questions about what was happening. In the background, a steady staccato, like the noise of a Geiger counter, attested to the continuing activity in my brain.
Clicks coming through a loudspeaker amplified the activity of each busy cell.
It was a strange experience to have someone rooting through your brain.
A closer look at how the surgeons implant the sensors on Forestell’s brain that will eventually provide the electrical impulses to help override some of the physical symptoms of Parkinson\’s. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
There was no feeling to it as the brain has no pain sensors. But as the probes slid into place, there were tell-tale signs that gave away what was happening — most commonly a tingling feeling in an arm or leg — as the surgeons carefully threaded the electrodes through my brain to reach the basal ganglia.
Along the way they asked me whether I could recite the days of the week, the months of the year backwards skipping every second month, and the progression of prime numbers to the fifth integer.
Once the probes were in place, it was time to install the wiring and other hardware. For this part of the surgery, anesthetic was required and I was put soundly to sleep. Both probes are attached to wires that are threaded through the skull and under the skin behind the ear, down the neck, over the clavicle and finally are plugged into a battery-operated pulse generator — similar to a pacemaker — that sits just under the skin of the chest. While the surgery involves all the usual risks of infection, hemorrhage, stroke and heart attack, side effects are rare.
A shocking conclusion
So, does it work?
Well, you can see the party trick I\’ve been boasting about in the video above. You be the judge.
Here is how it works.
Once the electrodes have been implanted in the brain, their ability to deliver the required electrical stimulation is controlled by a pulse transmitter and an adapted cellphone.
Forestell one week post-operation. Aside from what he describes as a terrible haircut, the only sign of surgical intervention is the ‘railway track’ of staples closing the wound. The procedure took less than 48 hours from hospital check-in to discharge. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
The cellphone carries an app that controls the frequency of the electrical stimulation of the basal ganglia. The stimulator is set to discharge regular electrical pulses day and night that miraculously override or disrupt the scrambled neural instructions that are a Parkinson\’s hallmark.
Suddenly I am able to walk normally. There are no tremors. The annoying signs of dyskinesia — those involuntary movements I described above — seem to disappear.
WATCH | In September 2022, before undergoing DBS, Harry Forestell described to his audiences what he was undertaking:
Harry Forestell opens up about the next stage in his treatment for Parkinson\’s
The host of CBC New Brunswick News at 6 speaks with Rachel Cave about how deep brain stimulation is expected to help him deal with his Parkinson\’s disease diagnosis.
Regaining control of motor functions is nothing short of a miracle, but it will not work for every Parkinson\’s patient. Those with other conditions are not suited for DBS. It alleviates motor symptoms most successfully among those who respond well to levodopa. Where it is successful in those cases, it means a decrease in that drug and its side effects.
I have been able to cut my medication in half and I recently
returned to work after four months away. I sleep soundly and, while I still tire easily, my mood has brightened.
Parkinson\’s disease will continue to dog my life. DBS may allow me another 10 or 15 years without disabling tremors, though they will probably return at some point as they continue to grow in intensity. There are other insidious effects of Parkinson\’s that are not affected by DBS.
But for the time being, it is as though the disease is caged.
On a leash.
I can hear it barking, but for now at least, it can\’t bite me.
Do you have a compelling personal story that can bring understanding or help others? Here\’s more info on how to pitch to us.
Before surgery, a metal frame was attached to Harry Forestell’s head to keep it still during an MRI scan. During surgery, the frame was bolted to the surgical table. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
This First Person article is written by Harry Forestell, host of CBC News New Brunswick at Six, who draws upon his experiences with Parkinson\’s disease.
My latest party trick is a real attention grabber.
It\’s a vivid illustration of the before and after effects of my recent treatment for Parkinson\’s disease. Proof of just how much a little poking around in the brain can achieve.
The treatment is called deep brain stimulation (DBS). It involves implanting thin electrodes into the brain where they emit tiny electrical pulses. Those pulses, applied continuously to just the right section of grey matter, stimulate centres in the brain that control signals sent to your muscles. In the basal ganglia, the engine house of the brain, signals are sent to the body ordering everything from speaking, to swallowing, to walking and touching. When those signals don\’t get through, or when the instructions get scrambled, the body\’s reaction can be cruel. Hands tremble uncontrollably, legs shake, walking becomes increasingly difficult, even swallowing is a challenge.
These are all early symptoms of Parkinson\’s disease and the list is by no means exhaustive.
Parkinson\’s is considered a chronic but not fatal disease. As neurologists will often explain, you will die with Parkinson\’s, not from Parkinson\’s. While true, it doesn\’t really capture the creeping, insidious progress of the disease as it deprives victims of the ability to control their own bodies.
Medical stories like this have always been a source of fascination for me. I worked for several years as a medicine and science reporter, covering stories that included the panic over mad cow disease in the U.K. I produced radio features on brain development and decay.
Little did I know that I eventually would be reporting on my own brain malady.
A shock of a diagnosis, and a relief
The day my diagnosis of Parkinson\’s disease was officially confirmed came as much of a relief as a shock.
It was 2015 and for the previous two years, my wife Jenny and I had been careering back and forth between hope and despair. My Fredericton neurologist, Dr. Eva Pniak, a patient and persevering soul, suspected Parkinson\’s, but suggested the problems I experienced walking and with my tremoring hands could also be explained by a modestly more benign condition called essential tremor.
These are just some of the drugs used to control Parkinson\’s disease. While levodopa is initially the most effective medication, it produces side effects that require other drugs that produce their own side effects. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
She referred me to a specialist in Toronto where the diagnosis was conclusive.
At 53, I had Parkinson\’s.
From leaping out of a tree to dancing the tango, very little happens in the body without first being ordered by the basal ganglia. Those orders are sent at the speed of light through nerve networks with the help of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. It is the as-yet unexplained decline in the brain\’s dopamine-producing cells that leads to movement disorders like Parkinson\’s.
It\’s a simple equation: no dopamine, no movement.
With Parkinson\’s, those dopamine cells start quietly dying off years before symptoms first appear. Scientists aren\’t certain why this happens, or why the process cannot be stopped or slowed.
Doctors can replace some of the lost dopamine with a medication called levodopa, but it causes a side effect known as dyskinesia — sudden uncontrolled muscle movements in the arms and upper body that create a writhing, torquing motion. As doctors increase doses of levodopa to stave off Parkinson\’s tremors, dyskinesia increases.
The payoff is in quality of life for patients
Neurologists have been experimenting with DBS to treat Parkinson\’s and other movement disorders for nearly 40 years. In 1997, the U.S.-based Food and Drug Administration approved DBS to treat Parkinson\’s disease.
Why not more? The simple reason is that it is a treatment involving intricate brain surgery by highly specialized surgical teams and requiring considerable aftercare.
WATCH | How deep brain stimulation can help overcome debilitating effects of Parkinson\’s:
See the almost instantaneous effects of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease treatment
Harry Forestell shows how DBS therapy can work in daily life — and demonstrates what happens when he turns it off.
\”The surgical expertise is extremely important,\” he said.
\”You have to have a surgeon that knows how to do the procedure and knows how to put the electrodes in the right spot. But then after the surgery, you need an expertise in doing all of the programming and adjusting the stimulators and also adjusting the medication doses which typically change after the operation,\” he said.
\”So it\’s a very complicated procedure that requires a team and it\’s the neurologist and the nurses after the surgery that are doing a great deal of the work in optimizing the responses.\”
It is a procedure, Lang points out, that requires support from provincial governments. The payoff is a treatment that can offer major improvements in quality of life for Parkinson\’s patients.
\”The Ontario government has appreciated the importance,\” said Lang, adding he feels lucky to have a team of expert neurosurgeons, neurologists, nurses and others to support patients.
\”The government recognized the importance of this technique and have provided what\’s called volume-based funding to allow us to operate on a much larger number than most centres.\”
My own experience is a vivid illustration of the relief DBS can bring to some Parkinson\’s patients.
Holes in my head
I entered Toronto Western Hospital on Sept. 30, 2022 with an idea of what was going to happen, but no real appreciation of what it would feel or sound like.
A metal structure was bolted to Forestell\’s skull prior to surgery at Toronto Western Hospital in September. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
I knew at some point before the end of the day someone was going to drill a hole in my head. At least one hole. Maybe two.
I was forewarned by reliable parties that the sound of that drilling would be akin to an airplane taking off. More like Concorde taking off inside my head!
Before surgery I had a metal structure bolted to my skull, not unlike the square lightshade at the top of a lamppost.
This was meant to hold my head steady during the MRI scan and throughout the more delicate procedure of skewering my brain without damaging the useful bits.
In the surgical suite there was a bustle of activity as half a dozen surgeons and nursing staff prepared for the procedure. My head head frame was bolted to the surgical table, and plastic sheets were draped over me to create an antiseptic site for the skull opening.
The drilling of two nickel-sized holes in my skull was every bit as loud as I had been warned. But no pain, just a feeling of pressure.
\”Somewhere in the middle of all this is me, wide awake,” says Forestell. The clear plastic barrier divides the room into sterile and non-sterile zones. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
In the back of the suite, a cluster of medical IT specialists sat in front of computer screens ready to track and to provide feedback and directions as to where the probes needed to go in my brain.
I know all of this because I was awake — wide awake — for the duration of the six-hour long surgery. I have spent plenty of time around hospitals, both as a patient and as the c
hild of a hospital worker. I\’ve covered many medical stories as a reporter. So rather than fear, the prospect of this procedure filled me with curiosity. How would it feel? What would it change? Would it work?
A strange experience indeed
The surgical suite hummed with the normal hubbub of a workplace. The surgeons and I kept up an amiable conversation as I asked questions about what was happening. In the background, a steady staccato, like the noise of a Geiger counter, attested to the continuing activity in my brain.
Clicks coming through a loudspeaker amplified the activity of each busy cell.
It was a strange experience to have someone rooting through your brain.
A closer look at how the surgeons implant the sensors on Forestell’s brain that will eventually provide the electrical impulses to help override some of the physical symptoms of Parkinson\’s. (Submitted by Harry Forestell)
There was no feeling to it as the brain has no pain sensors. But as the probes slid into place, there were tell-tale signs that gave away what was happening — most commonly a tingling feeling in an arm or leg — as the surgeons carefully threaded the electrodes through my brain to reach the basal ganglia.
Along the way they asked me whether I could recite the days of the week, the months of the year backwards skipping every second month, and the progression of prime numbers to the fifth integer.
Once the probes were in place, it was time to install the wiring and other hardware. For this part of the surgery, anesthetic was required and I was put soundly to sleep. Both probes are attached to wires that are threaded through the skull and under the skin behind the ear, down the neck, over the clavicle and finally are plugged into a battery-operated pulse generator — similar to a pacemaker — that sits just under the skin of the chest. While the surgery involves all the usual risks of infection, hemorrhage, stroke and heart attack, side effects are rare.
A shocking conclusion
So, does it work?
Well, you can see the party trick I\’ve been boasting about in the video above. You be the judge.
Here is how it works.
Once the electrodes have been implanted in the brain, their ability to deliver the required electrical stimulation is controlled by a pulse transmitter and an adapted cellphone.
Forestell one week post-operation. Aside from what he describes as a terrible haircut, the only sign of surgical intervention is the ‘railway track’ of staples closing the wound. The procedure took less than 48 hours from hospital check-in to discharge. (Harry Forestell/CBC)
The cellphone carries an app that controls the frequency of the electrical stimulation of the basal ganglia. The stimulator is set to discharge regular electrical pulses day and night that miraculously override or disrupt the scrambled neural instructions that are a Parkinson\’s hallmark.
Suddenly I am able to walk normally. There are no tremors. The annoying signs of dyskinesia — those involuntary movements I described above — seem to disappear.
WATCH | In September 2022, before undergoing DBS, Harry Forestell described to his audiences what he was undertaking:
Harry Forestell opens up about the next stage in his treatment for Parkinson\’s
The host of CBC New Brunswick News at 6 speaks with Rachel Cave about how deep brain stimulation is expected to help him deal with his Parkinson\’s disease diagnosis.
Regaining control of motor functions is nothing short of a miracle, but it will not work for every Parkinson\’s patient. Those with other conditions are not suited for DBS. It alleviates motor symptoms most successfully among those who respond well to levodopa. Where it is successful in those cases, it means a decrease in that drug and its side effects.
I have been able to cut my medication in half and I recently
returned to work after four months away. I sleep soundly and, while I still tire easily, my mood has brightened.
Parkinson\’s disease will continue to dog my life. DBS may allow me another 10 or 15 years without disabling tremors, though they will probably return at some point as they continue to grow in intensity. There are other insidious effects of Parkinson\’s that are not affected by DBS.
But for the time being, it is as though the disease is caged.
On a leash.
I can hear it barking, but for now at least, it can\’t bite me.
Do you have a compelling personal story that can bring understanding or help others? Here\’s more info on how to pitch to us.
نئی تحقیق کا کہنا ہے کہ سونے کے کمرے میں آلات بچوں کی نیند کے وقت اور معیار کو کھونے سے وابستہ ہیں۔
یہاں تک کہ وہ بچے اور نوجوان جو آن لائن دیر تک نہیں جاگتے ان کی نیند ختم ہو رہی ہے۔
سی این این
–
ان دنوں، اساتذہ کو اکثر جمائی لینے والے طلباء سے بھرے کلاس رومز کا سامنا کرنا پڑتا ہے جو دیر تک جاگتے رہتے ہیں سیلفی لیتے یا آن لائن گیمز کھیلتے۔
بچوں اور نوعمروں کے لیے، رات کے وقت سیل فون، ٹیبلٹ اور کمپیوٹر کا استعمال نیند کے وقت اور نیند کے معیار کو کھونے سے منسلک ہے، نئی تحقیق سے پتہ چلتا ہے۔ یہاں تک کہ جو بچے اپنے فون یا دیگر ٹیکنالوجیز کا استعمال نہیں کرتے جو رات کے وقت اپنے سونے کے کمرے کو کچرا ڈالتے ہیں وہ بھی آنکھیں بند کر رہے ہیں اور دن کی روشنی میں نیند کا شکار ہو رہے ہیں۔ تجزیہ آج JAMA پیڈیاٹرکس میں شائع ہوا۔ ڈھونڈتا ہے
کنگز کالج لندن میں بایوسٹیٹسٹکس کے لیڈ مصنف اور سینئر لیکچرر ڈاکٹر بین کارٹر نے کہا کہ تجزیہ نے \”ممالک اور ترتیبات کی ایک وسیع رینج میں اثر کا ایک مستقل نمونہ پایا\”۔
کارٹر اور ان کے ساتھیوں نے 1 جنوری 2011 سے 15 جون 2015 کے درمیان کیے گئے سیکڑوں قابل اطلاق مطالعات کی نشاندہی کرنے کے لیے طبی لٹریچر کا جائزہ لیا۔ انہوں نے 20 تحقیقی رپورٹس کا انتخاب کیا جن میں کل 125,198 بچے شامل تھے، جن کی اوسط عمر کے ساتھ جنس کے لحاظ سے یکساں طور پر تقسیم کیا گیا تھا۔ 14½ سال۔ متعلقہ ڈیٹا نکالنے کے بعد، کارٹر اور اس کے شریک مصنفین نے اپنا میٹا تجزیہ کیا۔
نتائج سے بہت کم والدین حیران ہوں گے: ٹیم نے سونے کے وقت میڈیا ڈیوائس کے استعمال اور نیند کی ناکافی مقدار، نیند کے خراب معیار اور دن کے وقت ضرورت سے زیادہ نیند کے درمیان ایک \”مضبوط اور مستقل تعلق\” پایا۔
حیرت انگیز طور پر، اگرچہ، کارٹر اور ان کی ٹیم نے دریافت کیا کہ جو بچے اپنے سونے کے کمرے میں اپنے آلات استعمال نہیں کرتے تھے، ان کی نیند میں خلل پڑتا تھا اور ان کے انہی مسائل کا شکار ہونے کا امکان تھا۔ ٹیکنالوجی کی طرف سے خارج ہونے والی روشنی اور آوازیں، نیز مواد خود بھی بہت محرک ہو سکتا ہے۔
اگرچہ کارٹر تسلیم کرتے ہیں کہ تجزیہ کی ایک کمزوری یہ تھی کہ \”بنیادی مطالعات میں ڈیٹا کیسے اکٹھا کیا گیا: والدین اور بچوں کی طرف سے خود اطلاع دی گئی\”، ہم میں سے بہت سے لوگ شاید اعدادوشمار میں جھلکتی ہمارے اپنے خاندانوں کی عادات کو پہچانیں گے۔
ریاست ہائے متحدہ امریکہ میں ایک بڑے پیمانے پر سروے نیشنل نیند فاؤنڈیشن (PDF) نے 2013 میں رپورٹ کیا کہ تمام بچوں میں سے 72% اور 89% نوجوانوں کی نیند کے ماحول میں کم از کم ایک آلہ موجود ہے۔ اس ٹیکنالوجی کا زیادہ تر استعمال سونے کے وقت کے قریب کیا جاتا ہے، اسی رپورٹ میں پایا گیا ہے۔
کارٹر اور اس کے ساتھی مصنفین کے مطابق، یہ ہمہ گیر ٹیکنالوجی بچوں کی نیند کے وقت میں تاخیر کرکے ان کی نیند پر منفی اثر ڈالتی ہے، کیونکہ وہ فلم دیکھنا یا ایک اور گیم کھیلتے ہیں۔
محققین بتاتے ہیں کہ ان آلات سے خارج ہونے والی روشنی سرکیڈین تال، اندرونی گھڑی کے وقت کے حیاتیاتی عمل کو بھی متاثر کر سکتی ہے، جس میں جسمانی درجہ حرارت اور ہارمون کا اخراج شامل ہے۔ ایک مخصوص ہارمون، میلاٹونن، تھکاوٹ کا باعث بنتا ہے اور ہماری نیند کے جاگنے کے چکر کے وقت میں حصہ ڈالتا ہے۔ الیکٹرانک لائٹس میلاٹونن کے اخراج میں تاخیر کر سکتی ہیں، اس سائیکل میں خلل ڈال سکتی ہیں اور سونا مشکل بنا سکتی ہیں۔
کارٹر اور اس کے شریک مصنفین یہ بھی تجویز کرتے ہیں کہ آن لائن مواد نفسیاتی طور پر محرک ہو سکتا ہے اور بچوں اور نوعمروں کو اس وقت بیدار رکھتا ہے جب وہ اپنے آلات بند کر کے سونے کی کوشش کرتے ہیں۔
\”نیند بچوں کے لیے بہت ضروری ہے،\” ڈیوک یونیورسٹی میڈیکل سینٹر میں پیڈیاٹرک نیورولوجی سلیپ میڈیسن پروگرام کے ڈائریکٹر ڈاکٹر سوجے کانساگرا نے کہا، جو نئے تجزیے میں شامل نہیں تھے۔ \”ہم جانتے ہیں کہ نیند دماغ کی نشوونما، یادداشت، خود کو کنٹرول کرنے، توجہ، مدافعتی افعال، قلبی صحت اور بہت کچھ میں اہم کردار ادا کرتی ہے۔\”
کنساگرا، مصنف \”میرا بچہ نہیں سوئے گا۔\”، نے نوٹ کیا کہ دماغ کی سب سے بڑی نشوونما کا دورانیہ ہماری زندگی کے پہلے تین سالوں میں ہوتا ہے، جو اس کے مساوی ہوتا ہے جب ہمیں سب سے زیادہ نیند کی ضرورت ہوتی ہے۔ \”یہ یقین کرنا مشکل ہے کہ یہ ایک اتفاق ہوگا۔\”
کنساگرا نے کہا کہ یہ ممکن ہے کہ والدین نے بچوں کو رات کے وقت آلات استعمال کرنے کی کم اطلاع دی ہو، لیکن زیادہ امکان ہے کہ ٹیکنالوجی صرف نیند کی حفظان صحت میں مداخلت کر رہی ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا، \”مثال کے طور پر، جن بچوں کو اپنے کمرے میں آلات رکھنے کی اجازت ہے، وہ نیند کے اچھے معمولات سے بچنے کا زیادہ امکان رکھتے ہیں، جو ہم جانتے ہیں کہ نیند کے لیے مفید ہے۔\”
امریکن سلیپ ایسوسی ایشن کے نمائندے ڈاکٹر نیل کلائن اس بات سے اتفاق کرتے ہیں کہ نیند بچے کی صحت مند نشوونما میں ایک لازمی کردار ادا کرتی ہے، حالانکہ \”ہم اس کے پیچھے کی تمام سائنس نہیں جانتے ہیں۔ یہاں تک کہ کچھ تحقیق ہے جو ADHD اور کچھ نیند کی خرابیوں کے درمیان تعلق کو ظاہر کرتی ہے۔
بہت سے معاملات میں، نئے مطالعہ کے نتائج کوئی تعجب نہیں ہیں. \”نیند کی حفظان صحت خاص طور پر نوعمری کے سالوں میں، ٹیکنالوجی کی وجہ سے نمایاں طور پر متاثر ہو رہی ہے،\” کلائن نے کہا، جو نہ صرف تحقیق پر بلکہ اپنے \”ذاتی تجربے اور بہت سے دوسرے ماہرین نیند کی کہانیوں پر بھی اپنی رائے قائم کرتے ہیں۔\”
گفتگو میں شامل ہوں۔
تازہ ترین خبریں دیکھیں اور اپنے تبصرے CNN Health پر شیئر کریں۔ فیس بک اور ٹویٹر.
نیند کی حفظان صحت – ایسی تجاویز جو اچھی، مسلسل اور مناسب نیند کی سہولت فراہم کرتی ہیں – ان میں ایک کمرہ شامل ہے جو پرسکون ہو۔ کلائن نے کہا ، \”اور اس کا مطلب یہ ہوگا کہ نیند میں مداخلت کرنے والی اشیاء کو ہٹانا ، بشمول الیکٹرانکس ، ٹی وی اور یہاں تک کہ پالتو جانور اگر وہ نیند میں مداخلت کرتے ہیں۔\”
ایک اور اہم ٹپ کی طرف سے آتا ہے۔ نیشنل نیند فاؤنڈیشن، جو سونے کے وقت سے پہلے کم از کم 30 منٹ \”گیجٹ فری ٹرانزیشن ٹائم\” کی تجویز کرتا ہے۔ بہتر نیند کے لیے پاور ڈاؤن کریں۔
اچھی نیند کی حفظان صحت کے لیے دیگر سفارشات میں شامل ہیں ورزش نہ کرنا (جسمانی یا ذہنی طور پر) سونے کے وقت کے بہت قریب؛ باقاعدگی سے نیند کا شیڈول قائم کرنا؛ سونے سے پہلے روشنی کی نمائش کو محدود کرنا؛ سونے سے پہلے گھنٹوں میں محرکات جیسے الکحل، کیفین اور نیکوٹین سے پرہیز کرنا؛ اور ایک تاریک، آرام دہ اور پرسکون نیند کا ماحول بنانا۔
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