Latest Sensory system Stories

HOUSTON, June 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Spine Pain Management, Inc. (OTC QB:SPIN), a medical services and technology company, today announced that it closed on the non-brokered private placement of a 12% Convertible Promissory Note generating proceeds of $500,000. The promissory note provides for quarterly payments of interest only with a final balloon payment of principal and interest due on March 27, 2014. Up to half the principal amount of the promissory note may be...

The University of Southampton has developed a new hearing screening test which could help the estimated 100 million people suffering from hearing loss in China. This new Chinese version is based on a hearing screening test developed by the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR), which has already been taken by more than a million people across Europe. The tests aim to address the fact that hundreds of millions of people worldwide have hearing loss but only a...

Researchers in France and Sweden have discovered how one of the body's own proteins is involved in generating chronic pain in rats. The results, which also suggest therapeutic interventions to alleviate long-lasting pain, are reported in The EMBO Journal. Chronic pain is persistent and often difficult to treat. It is due, at least in part, to changes in molecular signalling events that take place in neurons, alterations that can ultimately disrupt the transmission of nerve signals from the...

DANVERS, Mass. and BEVERLY, Mass., June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Pain affects nearly everyone at some point in their lives, and, in the worst cases, diminishes quality of life and livelihood. In fact, pain is a significant health problem affecting more than 100 million people and costing society at least $560-$635 billion annually in both health care and lost productivity costs.* Now research shows that pain patients do better with a comprehensive approach to care that addresses the...

Researchers at the RUB and from Durham report Patients who are blind in one side of their visual field benefit from presentation of sounds on the affected side. After passively hearing sounds for an hour, their visual detection of light stimuli in the blind half of their visual field improved significantly. Neural pathways that simultaneously process information from different senses are responsible for this effect. "We have embarked on a whole new therapy approach" says PD Dr. Jörg...

Novel System Is Worn in the Mouth, Conducting Sound Via the Teeth PITTSBURGH, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After experiencing sudden hearing loss in his right ear more than four years ago, Paul Getsy got used to craning his neck to hear better and driving with his window up so he was more likely to hear his passengers speaking. In December at Allegheny General Hospital (AGH), he was fitted with SoundBite, a new hearing system that's enabled him to pick up most of the...

A new study finds that transplanting embryonic cells into adult mouse spinal cord can alleviate persistent pain. The research, published by Cell Press in the May 24th issue of the journal Neuron, suggests that reduced pain results from successful integration of the embryonic cells into the host spinal cord. The findings open avenues for clinical strategies aimed not just at treating the symptoms of chronic debilitating pain, but correcting the underlying disease pathology. There are two...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) –Chewing fresh gum, thinking happy thoughts, taking deep breaths—they’re all ways we try and mentally distract ourselves from pain. New research shows there may be some truth behind these kooky pain-relieving tactics. The research is based on high-resolution spinal fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The findings showed as people experienced painful levels of heat, mental distractions actually inhibited the response to incoming pain signals at the...

Mental distractions make pain easier to take, and those pain-relieving effects aren't just in your head, according to a report published online on May 17 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings based on high-resolution spinal fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) as people experienced painful levels of heat show that mental distractions actually inhibit the response to incoming pain signals at the earliest stage of central pain processing. "The results...

Connie K. Ho for RedOrbit.com For many people, pain and needles go hand in hand. They shudder at the thought of going to the dentist or the doctor because of those pointy items. A new study looks at these preconceived notions of pain and needles, looking specifically at how these thoughts can affect a patients’ experience. The project, completed by a group of German researchers, states that past experiences with needle pricks, combined with information received before having an...