From
the Engineer:
The possibility of a patient lowering their blood pressure at the flick of a switch has been raised by research led by Oxford University, which shows that stimulating parts of the brain with electrodes can change a patient’s blood pressure...
Deep brain stimulation – placing very thin electrodes onto exact locations in the brain – is already used to relieve pain or to help Parkinsons’ sufferers to move better. Fifteen patients having the operation to implant electrodes for pain control agreed to take part in a study to see whether stimulating another location in the brain could alter blood pressure...
It was found that blood pressure could indeed be changed, and that it could be raised or lowered very precisely by stimulating different, very specific parts of the brain...
Abstract from
the NeuroReport:
Deep brain stimulation can regulate arterial blood pressure in awake humans. Neuroreport. 16(16):1741-1745, November 7, 2005.
The periaqueductal grey matter is known to play a role in cardiovascular control in animals. Cardiovascular responses to electrical stimulation of the periventricular/periaqueductal grey matter were measured in 15 awake human study participants following implantation of deep brain stimulating electrodes for treatment of chronic pain. We found that stimulation of the ventral periventricular/periaqueductal grey matter caused a mean reduction in systolic blood pressure of 14.2+/-3.6 mmHg in seven patients and stimulation of the dorsal periventricular/periaqueductal grey matter caused a mean increase of 16.7+/-5.9 mmHg in six patients. A comparison between ventral and dorsal electrodes demonstrated significant differences (P<0.05). These changes were accompanied by analogous changes in diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, maximum dP / dt but not in the time interval between each R wave on the electrocardiogram.
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