Researchers Create Musical Instrument to Be Played Using Only the Mind

A musical instrument that can be played only with brain activity may empower and rehabilitate patients with ALS and other motor diseases. Invoking brain scans known as electroencephalograms, University of Washington researchers have dubbed the musical device they created an Encephalophone. The article they wrote about it, titled “A Novel Musical…

Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals has completed enrollment its Phase 2 confirmatory study of NP001 (NCT02794857) in ALS patients with systemic inflammation. The company expects the last patient in the trial to be assessed in early 2018 and to release the study’s  results in the first months of the year. “Reaching…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FfWa7fcUw4 This video from Patients Like Me is all about baseball-loving Gus, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Gus explains that he is much more than his condition and hopes that others realize they are more than their illnesses, too. MORE: Explaining the early symptoms of…

Although known risks factors for ALS include age, male sex, and cigarette smoking, how occupations can influence ALS or other neurodegenerative diseases is less understood. A new study, however, finds that those who have high-status careers, often called white collar workers, face higher Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD)…

The Orlando-area medical marijuana company Green Relief is reminding Florida residents that the state no longer requires a 90-day waiting period before a patient with a serious disease like ALS can receive treatment. Florida lifted the 90-day requirement June 24 with rules that implemented changes in the state’s medical marijuana law…

Inflammation in the spinal cord, at least in part mediated by a molecule called PGE2, likely contributes to the disease processes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), researchers from Nihon University in Japan suggest. Their study, published in the journal Neurochemistry International, suggests that the molecule signals through one…

Around 90 percent of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cases are considered sporadic with no family history of the disease, but the remaining 10 percent are cases where ALS runs in the family. Often patients with familial ALS (FALS) also suffer from frontotemporal dementia, which is due to mutated genes that get passed down through the family.

  In this video from ITV’s This Morning, television presenter Charlotte Hawkins talks about her father’s journey with motor neuron disease (MND), which is also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She highlights how lonely people can feel living with the disease, particularly when they lose the…

Mutations in the TDP-43 gene might not be causing the disease changes seen in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) on their own, but might need additional environmental or genetic factors to trigger disease. This was the conclusion of scientists at the Oregon Health & Science University who studied mutant forms…

A moderate to severe traumatic brain injury puts a person at high risk of developing dementia, although not Parkinson’s or ALS, a study in Finland suggests. In contrast, a mild brain injury appears to have no connection with the development of dementia, the researchers said. The study, which involved brain injuries…