{"id":243221,"date":"2026-08-26T09:49:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/deep-brain-stimulation-shows-potential-to-improve-communication-after-traumatic-brain-injury"},"modified":"2026-08-26T09:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:49:01","slug":"deep-brain-stimulation-shows-potential-to-improve-communication-after-traumatic-brain-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/deep-brain-stimulation-shows-potential-to-improve-communication-after-traumatic-brain-injury","title":{"rendered":"Deep brain stimulation shows potential to improve communication after traumatic brain injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/deep-brain-stimulation-shows-potential-to-improve-communication-after-traumatic-brain-injury.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, may help improve speech and swallowing problems caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to a new University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-75588-3\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Nature Communications<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The proof-of-concept study found that low-frequency electrical stimulation of the motor thalamus, a deep brain region connected to the motor cortex, improved control of facial and tongue muscles involved in speaking and swallowing. The findings suggest that DBS may be able to strengthen remaining communication pathways between the brain and muscles after TBI, with the potential to improve and partially restore a person\u2019s ability to communicate verbally.<\/p>\n<p>The study, led by Elvira Pirondini, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Pitt\u2019s Rehab Neural Engineering Laboratory, and Jorge A. Gonzalez-Martinez, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurological surgery at Pitt, builds on the group\u2019s previous work using neuromodulation to improve arm and hand movement after brain injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, may help improve speech and swallowing problems caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to a new University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study published in Nature Communications. The proof-of-concept study found that low-frequency electrical stimulation of the motor thalamus, a deep brain region connected to the motor cortex, improved [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,38,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-engineering","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}