Parkinson’s Drug & Brain Health: What You Need to Know
- A novel brain imaging analysis could revolutionize how doctors treat Parkinson's disease, offering a path toward personalized medicine.
- The approach involves using complex technology to study how medications affect brain signaling.
- Simon Fraser University's (SFU) ImageTech Lab, located at Surrey Memorial Hospital, houses the only magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine in western Canada.
Discover how groundbreaking brain imaging analysis is poised to personalize Parkinson’s drug treatments. This innovative approach allows doctors to monitor individual responses to Parkinson’s drugs, perhaps revolutionizing treatment effectiveness. simon Fraser University’s MEG technology provides unprecedented insights into brain activity, offering a new lens through which to understand the disease. News Directory 3 reports on the potential for more effective prescribing and tailored dosages. This research extends beyond Parkinson’s, with implications for medications targeting brain signaling. Explore the future of parkinson’s treatment and the move towards more accessible imaging methods, like EEG. Discover what’s next …
Brain Imaging Analysis Could Personalize Parkinson’s Drug Treatment
Updated June 26, 2025
A novel brain imaging analysis could revolutionize how doctors treat Parkinson’s disease, offering a path toward personalized medicine. The technique allows clinicians to track individual responses to medications, potentially leading to more effective prescribing and therapeutics.
The approach involves using complex technology to study how medications affect brain signaling. Alex I. Wiesman, of Simon Fraser university, said the goal is to tailor treatments to each patient’s unique needs. This could mean trying different medications or adjusting dosages to optimize outcomes.
Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) ImageTech Lab, located at Surrey Memorial Hospital, houses the only magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine in western Canada. Wiesman said that combined with new analysis approaches,the MEG provides an unprecedented look into brain activity.
The new brain imaging analysis isn’t limited to Parkinson’s disease. According to researchers, any medication that affects brain signaling can be studied using this method.
Wiesman said the technology offers opportunities to study Parkinson’s disease in ways never before possible.
”This might be really helpful for tracking individualized responses to these types of drugs and helping with prescribing and therapeutics,” he said.
“So maybe we try different medications, maybe we adjust dosages differently. And this helps clinicians get at that question of how we prescribe personalized medicine in a way that really helps the patient. The more we can personalize that approach, make it more expedient, make it a bit more specific to that person, the better.”
”We have this really fantastic technology right here at SFU, and combined with the new analysis approaches that we’re developing, it gives us a really unprecedented look into what’s happening in the brain,” says Wiesman.”We can use this technology moving forward to study Parkinson’s disease in ways that no one has ever done before worldwide.”
What’s next
The next step involves applying the new approach to a larger patient group.Researchers also aim to translate the research to more accessible brain imaging methods, such as electroencephalogram (EEG), to ensure the technology is useful for a diverse population and more widely accessible to patients with Parkinson’s disease.