{"id":7391,"date":"2019-04-09T13:03:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T17:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vielight.com\/de\/\/?p=7391"},"modified":"2021-06-24T13:46:58","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T17:46:58","slug":"non-invasive-treatment-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vielight.com\/de\/non-invasive-treatment-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Sanguinetti’s Research in tPBM, Non-invasive Treatment Modalities and Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neuroimaging modalities like fMRI have begun to uncover the brain areas that are dysfunctional in disorders like depression. Non-invasive neuromodulation technologies like transcranial photobiomodulation allow us to target those brain areas for new treatments. tPBM is such an easy and cost-effective form of neuromodulation that the technology could be scaled rather quickly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In late March 2019, we reached out to Prof. Jay Sanguinetti Ph.D. Prof. Sanguinetti\u2019s research focuses on neurocognitive applications for clinical non-invasive treatment and neuroenhancement. Despite his full schedule, he agreed to answer a few questions and elaborate more on his groundbreaking work.<\/p>\n

In his answers, Prof. Sanguinetti highlights the opportunities that photobiomodulation (PBM) and, specifically, transcranial photobimodulation (tPBM) present to modern neuroscientists. You will sense considerable potential, hope and pride for his field of research and his work in Sanguinetti’s words. Perhaps, these feelings come through because this researcher\u2019s journey can lead to significant discoveries and advancement of non-invasive treatment modalities. Furthermore, applications for such potential discoveries can be numerous, as you will find out from the interview below.<\/p>\n

Non-Invasive Transcranial Photobiomodulation<\/h2>\n

Q: It looks like your primary interest lies with research in neurocognitive applications. What attracts you to this field, and why do you think it is worth pursuing?<\/h4>\n

A: My interests are in two broad categories, clinical treatment, and neuroenhancement. Neuroimaging modalities like fMRI have begun to uncover the brain areas that are dysfunctional in disorders like depression. Non-invasive neuromodulation technologies like transcranial photobiomodulation allow us to target those brain areas for new treatments. This is exciting because it gives us a level of specificity that phrenological interventions cannot. I\u2019m also interested in using non-invasive neuromodulation for neuroenhancement. For example, imagine that you could use a simple and safe device that allowed you to learn the piano or how to meditate twice as fast without any side effects. I think that would be worth-while to create something like that!<\/p>\n

Importance of Research in Non-invasive Treatment Modalities<\/h2>\n
\"neuromodulation-session-using-vielight-neuro-devices\"

Meditators are wearing the Vielight Neuro devices<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Q: In one of the descriptions of your interests, you prominently note the factor of non-invasive applications. Why non-invasiveness is so relevant and critical to your research? Why is it so important?<\/h4>\n

A: Non-invasive neuromodulation means affecting brain activity with a wearable device<\/a>. That\u2019s in contrast to invasive Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) where a neurosurgeon inserts an electrode directly into the brain. DBS works beautifully for disorders like Parkinson \u2019s disease and there is some evidence it works for depression and OCD.\u00a0 Although DBS is highly efficacious, it has a major drawback: It requires brain surgery! So, the major advantage of non-invasive technologies is that they may allow us to gain the power of DBS to treat neurological and psychiatric disease, but without going through the trouble of brain surgery.<\/p>\n

Q: You study various forms of non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation. How prominent is transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) with near infrared light (NIR) is in your work? What could you tell us about your research in the field of tPBM? What are the relevant applications for tPBM that you research supports?<\/h4>\n

A: I am new to the transcranial photobiomodulation<\/a> (tPBM) field. I became interested in how various forms of energy \u2013 mechanical energy, electromagnetism, light \u2013 influence neural activity, and I came across the fascinating field of tPBM. We have now completed a series of experiments using PBM to enhance learning in a healthy population of undergraduate students. Our goal is to use tPBM for neuroenhancement during learning tasks. We predict that tPBM could be used during the acquisition of new skills, to learn new information, or to perform better on tasks that require focused attention.<\/p>\n

We chose the Neuro Gamma device because it flickers the light at 40 Hz. Brain oscillations between 25 and 100 Hz are known as gamma oscillations and are related to higher-level cognitive functions like attention. They are proposed to be the neural correlate of consciousness. Currently, it is not known whether the flicker rate of tPBM can directly influence neural oscillations, but there are some promising pilot results that suggest that they might.\u00a0 Therefore, we selected the Neuro Gamma in an attempt to enhance cognitive performance on a learning task.\u00a0 If the experiment is successful, then the enhancement could be due to enhancement of cellular function (the basic mechanism of tPBM), due to the influence of neural oscillations, or both.<\/p>\n

Q: These days you are conducting a very interesting study involving the military. In this study, you are employing Vielight devices to test their effect on your subjects. What can you tell us today, considering that the study is still ongoing?<\/h4>\n

A: The overall goal was to enhance learning on a threat-detection task. Participants received tPBM during the learning phase of the task with the hope of enhancing their ability to focus on the task or to learn from the stimulus cues.\u00a0 Our participants are undergraduate subject at the University of New Mexico, but the project funding comes from the Department of Defense. This is a basic experiment to ask whether tPBM can enhance cognitive performance.\u00a0 Our results are encouraging so far, but we have not submitted our research for publication so I am unable to divulge too much at this point<\/p>\n

We are using a task that Dr. Vince Clark has previously used with another form of non-invasive neuromodulation, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Dr. Clark has previously shown that just 20 minutes of tDCS doubles the learning rate on the threat-detection task. This result has been replicated in his lab and others. Thus, we have a nice baseline and experimental paradigm to compare our tPBM results with.\u00a0 One nice thing about using this paradigm is that we know how big the effect size is with tDCS. This fact will allow us to directly compare the size of our effect with tPBM.<\/p>\n

Researching Effects of Transcranial Photobiomodulation on Meditation<\/h2>\n

Q: I understand that you are also looking into researching the effect of transcranial PBM on meditation. Can you describe your experience? What are you looking for? What do you think is the future of tPBM in meditation, and improvement on a person\u2019s well-being in general? The latter is the subject to validation studies, of course.<\/h4>\n

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