What is neuromodulation technology (“brain pacemaker”)?

       Neuromodulation technology is a brand new treatment method applied in recent years in the clinic, and it is now applied not only to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, primary tremor, torsional spasm and other motor dysfunctional diseases, but also to the treatment of epilepsy, analgesia, urinary incontinence, obsessive-compulsive disorder and vegetative headache monument diseases. Some scholars say that this method is a milestone in human treatment of neurofunctional diseases.  Neuromodulation surgery (commonly known as “brain pacemaker” in China) is the standard treatment method in the world today, and its efficacy has been clinically proven for many years, and tens of thousands of related literature can be easily searched in international literature search centers. This treatment has been used in Europe and the United States for more than a decade and has been available in China for many years, but because it is more expensive, it is not used by many patients and is not known to the general public.  Neuromodulation, in layman’s terms, is the distribution of modulated pulsed currents of different frequencies, pulse widths and voltages to specific nuclei that cause disease symptoms, altering abnormal nerve impulses so that they are inhibited and no longer cause pathological symptoms in patients. Because the pathophysiology of different diseases varies, specific “targets” need to be targeted to obtain control of different symptoms.  For example, in Parkinson’s disease, where tremor and rigidity are the main symptoms, electrodes are placed in the thalamic nucleus (STN), while in primary tremor, electrical impulses are applied to the ventral posterior medial nucleus (Vim) of the thalamus. For malignant pain after spinal cord injury and herpes zoster, electrodes need to be placed on the corresponding spinal cord nerve segments according to the different sites.  Neuromodulation is specifically implemented by an electrical pulse generator that distributes specific electrical pulses, which are connected, through special wires, to electrodes placed directly on the specific nucleus accumbens or nerve segment at the point of application. All these components are placed entirely in the body: the pulse generator is subclavian or epigastric subcutaneously, and the connecting wires are connected to the electrodes placed on the target points in the body through subcutaneous tunnels. The pulse generator’s pulse delivery parameters can be remotely modulated by a dedicated in vitro remote control in order to adapt to the patient’s needs at different stages of the disease and to obtain individualized and optimal results.