Ivan Cadena, neuropsychologist, doctoral candidate in Neurosciences and Director of Neuropsychological Services of the Caribbean (SNC), explains how they perform rehabilitation and cognitive stimulation with new technologies at their center in Colombia.

Neuropsychological Services of the Caribbean (SNC) is located in the north of Colombia, in the city of Cartagena. It was born from the need to provide not only evaluation, but also rehabilitation to people with brain damage, mainly in childhood or in older adulthood.

When we refer to childhood, we point out that we have been working in the last five years on learning disorders, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit or intellectual disability.

When we talk about older adulthood, we refer to neurocognitive disorders due to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke or other neurocognitive impairment.

What has interested us from the beginning, beyond the evaluation, is to be able to provide alternative solutions to our patients in terms of design and implementation of a neurorehabilitation plan that allows them and their families to have a better quality of life.

Rehabilitation and cognitive stimulation with new technologies: brain technology

Well, at SNC we use different brain technology equipment for stimulation and rehabilitation at the service of the different pathologies mentioned above. The equipment we use is mentioned below:

Neurofeedback

Neurofeedback works for the treatment of a wide range of problems and is characterized by the management of dysregulation in the distribution of brain rhythms. Through the process of visualization and control of brain waves, it is possible to regulate the state of excitation or inhibition of the brain. This allows to treat directly the cause of the problems and not their symptoms.

Light and sound neurostimulation

Likewise, we use the neurostimulation of light and sound, which is performed through a rehabilitation equipment of unsuspected scope and high effectiveness. It is an audiovisual brain training system of the latest technology clinically proven.

The neuronal waves are modified and the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms manipulate them (frequency tracking response), which allows the organism to feel and think as its own the induced state. The simultaneous and coherent use of the cerebral hemispheres is stimulated through binaural and semicircular sounds of proprietary technology.

Transcranial infrared light stimulation

Following the use of brain technology, we employ transcranial infrared light stimulation. It is a revolutionary new neurotechnology device. A powerful device that features ultra-improved transcranial clusters and upgraded microchip LED drive technology. This leads to a tripling of power density, being a refined form factor that fits a wider variety of head shapes and sizes.

Currently, this equipment is capable of extracting one of the highest amounts of power from a pulsed infrared LED source by incorporating microchip technology within the intranasal diode.

NeuronUP

But the most interesting thing we are using, and it is a brilliant combination with the previous equipment, is the use of the NeuronUP neurorehabilitation platform.

This platform allows that once the brain has been electrically stimulated (which can also be called passive stimulation), it can be exercised actively through the various and extensive exercises that the platform has.

The usefulness of the platform is very broad, since it manages, among other things, to stimulate the different cognitive domains and their subdomains or subprocesses.

For example, it is not only the possibility of exercising attention, but also sustained, selective or alternating attention. This is also the case with other neuropsychological domains or processes such as memory, executive functions, language, gnosias or praxias.

Rehabilitation and cognitive stimulation with new technologies: telerehabilitation with NeuronUP

In addition to the above, NeuronUP has been very beneficial to the center in these times of confinement, as it has allowed the design of sessions with home access. The patient, in the comfort of his or her home, can carry out the training. Meanwhile, the professional, connected by Zoom, Google meet or Skype, can monitor 100% of the session as if he were in the office.

In the same way, NeuronUP offers extensive and complete information on patient results. This facilitates the analysis of the evolution of the patients and guides the professional on the path to follow in the rehabilitation process.

Benefits of NeuronUP according to our patients and their families

NeuronUP has brought many benefits to our services. Our patients, their families and even colleagues say so. They recognize the technical, professional and scientific importance of the platform for a true comprehensive plan that allows a better quality of life for those who come to Neuropsychological Services of the Caribbean (SNC).

There is no better gain than the happiness drawn on the face of someone who shows positive results, and NeuronUP is an accomplice of that happiness.