RELEVANCE:
Brain Wellness Innovators is investigating an effective method for cognitive rehabilitation therapy that improves the underlying health of the PD patient and slows or stops the present steady progression of this intractable disease. We consider PD the best candidate for this approach because current research is in a transition phase since the results of the Phase-II Cere-120 (neurturin) trial; even though stem-cell surgery research has the go-ahead, some researchers question the premise that the disease begins with loss of substantia-nigral dopamine production capability. Due to what we call the "Parkinson Noumenon" (PN) -- the diminution of symptoms during skilled motor activity -- we believe the PD patient can be engaged in active collaboration, as are physical rehabilitation patients after injury or stroke.
INNOVATION:
The three therapeutic modes of this protocol use a systems-medicine approach to treat the non-linear, complex disruption of protein-messenger systems (and of their axonal transport) in the brain. The protocol systematically uses the "Profound Placebo Effect" (PPE) named by Dr. Raymond Bartus after the Cere-120 Phase-2 results, to develop a synergy of therapies for cognitive rehabilitation that the researchers believe can identify the PPE as a specific "endogenous brain repair mechanism" or EBRM.
This is a clinical trial to determine the synergistic effect of Acupuncture, Neurofeedback, and Mindfulness-based Art Therapy (MBAT), defined specifically as an investigation of the PN during skilled activity, such as, creativity, music, and eastern energy-exercise, in order to train patients to access this brain state at will, particularly to counteract rigidity and dyskinesia.
APPROACH:
Acupuncture targets the alternate motor pathway selected for this investigation, brings the CNS and PNS into phase, and restores the immune system. By recording, identifying, and mapping brain frequencies of individual patients when in the target state, the researchers are preparing a synthesis of this protocol with computational neuroscience to find strange attractors in two related chaotic systems, the Parkinson patient's brain and heart arhythmia, then using neurofeedback to train the patient to "re-cognize" or induce optimal rhythm or frequency by synchronized breathing.
SIGNIFICANCE:
Current research in PD indicates frustration with dopamine replacement techniques and the new approaches of nanotechnology or optogenetics are too distant to help PD patients now.
With corroborative data for the efficacy of the treatment synergy, Brain Wellness Innovators plans to develop training and materials for practitioners in the three therapeutics, as well as software animated to optimal frequency patterns identified in our research for patients' collaboration in their own healthcare. As the phases of investigation progress, the researchers plan to expand the protocol to identify patterns and develop treatment for other brain disease, as well as for traumatic injury.