{"id":1969,"date":"2022-12-12T06:51:18","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T06:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fii-institute.org\/?p=1969"},"modified":"2023-01-25T08:08:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T08:08:36","slug":"abandoned-the-human-cost-of-neurotechnology-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fii-institute.org\/ar\/abandoned-the-human-cost-of-neurotechnology-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned: The Human Cost of Neurotechnology Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article was authored by Liam Drew<\/strong> and originally published to Nature<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Markus M\u00f6llmann-Bohle\u2019s left cheek hides a secret that has changed his life. Under the skin, nestled among the nerve fibres that allow him to feel and move his face, is a miniature radio receiver and six tiny electrodes. \u201cI\u2019m a cyborg,\u201d he says, with a chuckle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This electronic device lies dormant much of the time. But, when M\u00f6llmann-Bohle feels pressure starting to gather around his left eye, he retrieves a black plastic wand about the size of a mobile phone, pushes a button and fixes it against his face in a home-made sling. The remote vibrates for a moment, then launches high-frequency radio waves into his cheek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the implant fires a sequence of electrical pulses into a bundle of nerve cells called the sphenopalatine ganglion. By disrupting these neurons, the device spares 57-year-old M\u00f6llmann-Bohle the worst of the agonizing cluster headaches that have plagued him for decades. He uses the implant several times a day. \u201cI need this device to live a good life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cluster headaches are rare, but extraordinarily painful. People are typically affected for life and treatment options are very limited. M\u00f6llmann-Bohle experienced his first in 1987 at the age of 22. For decades, he managed sporadic headaches with a mix of painkillers and migraine medication. But in 2006, his condition became chronic, and he would be struck with as many as eight hour-long cluster headaches every day. \u201cI was forced to succumb to the pain again and again,\u201d he says. \u201cI was kept from living my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI was forced to succumb to the pain again and again. I was kept from living my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

M\u00f6llmann-Bohle, evermore reliant on painkillers and now also taking antidepressants, was hospitalized numerous times. During one of these stays, however, he heard about an electronic implant that some people had started using to control their cluster headaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developed by the start-up Autonomic Technologies (known as ATI) in San Francisco, California, the device had passed a series of placebo-controlled clinical trials with flying colours. \u201cIt worked remarkably well,\u201d says Arne May, a neurologist at the University of Hamburg in Germany who led some of those trials on behalf of the start-up. In most people, stimulation reduced the pain of an attack, made attacks less frequent, or both1<\/sup><\/a>. Side effects were rare. In February 2012, while US trials continued, the European Medicines Agency granted the company approval to market the device across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M\u00f6llmann-Bohle contacted May, and travelled from his home near D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany, to meet him. Filled with hope that this might alleviate his suffering, M\u00f6llmann-Bohle underwent surgery to have the device fitted in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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