Internationale Zeitschrift für Physikalische Medizin und Rehabilitation
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Abstrakt

Transligual neurostimulation (TLNS): the toolbox for neurorehabilitation

Yuri Danilov, Evgeniy Bugorsky

Translingual neurostimulation (TLNS) and new neurorehabilitation technology represents a synthesis of a non-invasive brain stimulation technique with multiple applications in physical medicine, neurorehabilitation, cognitive, and affective neuroscience. New stimulation method appears promising for the treatment of balance, posture, movement disorders, and also for both cognitive dysfunction associated with severe neurological disorders: traumatic brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy. The TLNS integrated with physical therapy aims to restore function beyond traditionally expected limits by employing both newly developed therapeutic mechanisms for progressive physical and cognitive training - while simultaneously applying brain stimulation through the dorsal surface of the tongue by portable neurostimulation (PoNS) device. TLNS uses sequenced patterns of electrical stimulation on the anterior dorsal surface of the tongue to stimulate lower branches of the trigeminal and facial nerves. The trains of neural impulses eventually produce changes of neural activity in corresponding nuclei of the brainstem – in the sensory and spinal nuclei of trigeminal nuclei complex, the caudal part of the nucleus tractus solitarius, cochlear, cuneate and hypoglossal nuclei and the spine (C1- C3).