ISU Continues to Study How Magnets and Sound Can Heal the Brain

A grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust will allow Iowa State University researchers continue studying how magnets and ultrasound can heal a range of brain disorders.

The trust of Muscatine gave researchers almost $400,000 toward the brain stimulation laboratory at ISU.

“We believe this is an important area with a range of likely beneficial impacts for health care,” David C. Jiles, principal investigator for the project, and professor and Palmer Departmental Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University, said in a press release.

“Most other organs in the human body have well-defined, well understood functions, but we know relatively little about the brain because of its complexity and its varied electrical functions as part of the nervous system,” he said in the statement.

One of the goals of the research is to find better nonsurgical methods to treat brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury, concussions, stroke and degenerative issues such as Parkinson’s disease and stimulate regions of the brain to treat disorders like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Researchers hope to come up with better deep-brain stimulation methods involving both electromagnetic fields and ultrasonic waves.

Jiles' research group has developed a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil called the HALO coil designed to induce an electric field in the deeper regions of the brain. The ultrasound brain stimulation entails using an ultrasonic wand to stimulate the brain where it's needed, said Ravi Hadimani, an ISU postdoctoral research associate, in an email response to questions.

The grant from the Carver trust would pay for some of the equipment for the lab and salaries of graduate and post-doctoral associates, Hadimani said.

The equipment purchased with the grant will allow researchers to test the Halo Coil on animals and human subjects.

Jiles and Hadimani are also working with Tim Bigelow, an assistant professor, both in the College of Engineering, and Anumantha Kanthasamy, the W. E. Lloyd Endowed Chair in Neurotoxicology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State and Laurie McCormick, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, will also be involved.