Yes, I know that the image is a cross section of a stunningly ripe watermelon, but it is such a glorious image and it does hint at one of the matters discussed in the new review article - intracranial red lights.

Red and near infrared lights don’t just pop themselves inside one’s head. It is a surgical procedure, and at the moment it is still being tested by the same team who developed the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) device. This team clearly know what they are doing, because DBS is now available across the world.

Intracranial light implants will become available in the future, but they are still in development and testing at the moment.

This new article covers in detail research in two areas:

1. the effects of intracranial light implants in animal models of Parkinson’s disease, and

2. the effects of extra-cranial or transcranial lights in Parkinson’s disease, in animal models and in people with Parkinson’s.

The question posed at the beginning of this article is: which is better? Is an intracranial implant likely to be better than a transcranial light hat?

And the answer is that neither is likely to be superior to the other, and that the way to go is to have a light inside the head and lights over the whole head at the same time. That way you will get the largest proportion of the brain cells getting direct light.

In the absence of a red light that you can easily shove into the centre of your brain, then transcranial lights are the way to go. And the sooner they are started, the better.

Reference

Johnstone DM, Hamilton C, Gordon LC, Moro C, Torres N, Nicklason F, Stone J, Benabid AL, Mitrofanis J. Exploring the Use of Intracranial and Extracranial (Remote) Photobiomodulation Devices in Parkinson's Disease: A Comparison of Direct and Indirect Systemic Stimulations. J Alzheimers Dis. 2021;83(4):1399-1413. doi: 10.3233/JAD-210052. PMID: 33843683.

The photo is by Patrick Fore on Unsplash