ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Andres Lozano - Neurosurgeon
The chair of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, Andres Lozano has pioneered the use of deep brain stimulation for treating Parkinson’s, depression, anorexia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Why you should listen

Andres Lozano remembers the most satisfying case of his career – helping a boy with a genetic form of dystonia which had twisted his body to the point where he was only able to crawl on his stomach. While he didn’t respond to drugs, he responded wonderfully to deep brain stimulation. Three months after surgery, he was walking like a normal child. He’s now a college student leading a normal life.

Lozano is a pioneer in deep brain stimulation. His team has mapped out areas of the human brain and pioneered novel surgical approaches to treat disorders like Parkinson’s disease, depression, dystonia, anorexia, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease. The chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, he holds both the R.R. Tasker Chair in Functional Neurosurgery at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience.

Lozano has over 400 publications, serves on the board of several international organizations and is a founding member of the scientific advisory board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He has received a number of awards including the Olivecrona Medal and the Pioneer in Medicine award, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and has received the Order of Spain.

More profile about the speaker
Andres Lozano | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxCaltech

Andres Lozano: Parkinson's, depression and the switch that might turn them off

Filmed:
1,477,742 views

Deep brain stimulation is becoming very precise. This technique allows surgeons to place electrodes in almost any area of the brain, and turn them up or down -- like a radio dial or thermostat -- to correct dysfunction. Andres Lozano offers a dramatic look at emerging techniques, in which a woman with Parkinson's instantly stops shaking and brain areas eroded by Alzheimer's are brought back to life.
- Neurosurgeon
The chair of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, Andres Lozano has pioneered the use of deep brain stimulation for treating Parkinson’s, depression, anorexia and Alzheimer’s disease. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
One of the things I want to establish right from the start
0
401
2316
00:14
is that not all neurosurgeons wear cowboy boots.
1
2717
3030
00:17
I just wanted you to know that.
2
5747
2179
00:19
So I am indeed a neurosurgeon,
3
7926
2409
00:22
and I follow a long tradition of neurosurgery,
4
10335
3927
00:26
and what I'm going to tell you about today
5
14262
1593
00:27
is adjusting the dials in the circuits in the brain,
6
15855
2318
00:30
being able to go anywhere in the brain
7
18173
1955
00:32
and turning areas of the brain up or down
8
20128
2419
00:34
to help our patients.
9
22547
2212
00:36
So as I said, neurosurgery comes from a long tradition.
10
24759
2950
00:39
It's been around for about 7,000 years.
11
27709
3552
00:43
In Mesoamerica, there used to be neurosurgery,
12
31261
3725
00:46
and there were these neurosurgeons that used to treat patients.
13
34986
3768
00:50
And they were trying to -- they knew that the brain was involved
14
38754
3911
00:54
in neurological and psychiatric disease.
15
42680
2352
00:57
They didn't know exactly what they were doing.
16
45032
2161
00:59
Not much has changed, by the way. (Laughter)
17
47193
2814
01:02
But they thought that,
18
50007
1873
01:03
if you had a neurologic or psychiatric disease,
19
51880
2003
01:05
it must be because you are possessed
20
53883
2591
01:08
by an evil spirit.
21
56474
2352
01:10
So if you are possessed by an evil spirit
22
58826
1969
01:12
causing neurologic or psychiatric problems,
23
60795
2820
01:15
then the way to treat this is, of course,
24
63615
2021
01:17
to make a hole in your skull and let the evil spirit escape.
25
65636
5683
01:23
So this was the thinking back then,
26
71319
1378
01:24
and these individuals made these holes.
27
72697
4144
01:28
Sometimes the patients were a little bit reluctant
28
76841
2983
01:31
to go through this because, you can tell that
29
79824
2415
01:34
the holes are made partially and then, I think,
30
82239
2451
01:36
there was some trepanation, and then they left very quickly
31
84690
2015
01:38
and it was only a partial hole,
32
86705
1901
01:40
and we know they survived these procedures.
33
88606
2316
01:42
But this was common.
34
90922
1208
01:44
There were some sites where one percent
35
92130
1266
01:45
of all the skulls have these holes, and so you can see
36
93396
2725
01:48
that neurologic and psychiatric disease is quite common,
37
96121
3194
01:51
and it was also quite common about 7,000 years ago.
38
99315
4433
01:55
Now, in the course of time,
39
103748
2153
01:57
we've come to realize that
40
105901
2220
02:00
different parts of the brain do different things.
41
108121
2258
02:02
So there are areas of the brain that are dedicated
42
110379
1187
02:03
to controlling your movement or your vision
43
111566
2693
02:06
or your memory or your appetite, and so on.
44
114259
2949
02:09
And when things work well, then the nervous system
45
117208
2734
02:11
works well, and everything functions.
46
119942
1669
02:13
But once in a while, things don't go so well,
47
121611
2247
02:15
and there's trouble in these circuits,
48
123858
2542
02:18
and there are some rogue neurons that are misfiring
49
126400
2704
02:21
and causing trouble, or sometimes they're underactive
50
129104
3179
02:24
and they're not quite working as they should.
51
132283
2544
02:26
Now, the manifestation of this
52
134827
2137
02:28
depends on where in the brain these neurons are.
53
136964
2484
02:31
So when these neurons are in the motor circuit,
54
139448
2422
02:33
you get dysfunction in the movement system,
55
141870
2412
02:36
and you get things like Parkinson's disease.
56
144282
2166
02:38
When the malfunction is in a circuit that regulates your mood,
57
146448
3296
02:41
you get things like depression,
58
149744
2284
02:44
and when it is in a circuit that controls your memory and cognitive function,
59
152028
3824
02:47
then you get things like Alzheimer's disease.
60
155852
2521
02:50
So what we've been able to do is to pinpoint
61
158373
2723
02:53
where these disturbances are in the brain,
62
161096
2307
02:55
and we've been able to intervene within these circuits
63
163403
3037
02:58
in the brain to either turn them up or turn them down.
64
166440
3656
03:02
So this is very much like choosing the correct station
65
170096
2284
03:04
on the radio dial.
66
172380
1975
03:06
Once you choose the right station, whether it be jazz or opera,
67
174355
2649
03:09
in our case whether it be movement or mood,
68
177004
2333
03:11
we can put the dial there,
69
179337
1966
03:13
and then we can use a second button to adjust the volume,
70
181303
2771
03:16
to turn it up or turn it down.
71
184074
2009
03:18
So what I'm going to tell you about
72
186083
1228
03:19
is using the circuitry of the brain to implant electrodes
73
187311
4058
03:23
and turning areas of the brain up and down
74
191369
2468
03:25
to see if we can help our patients.
75
193837
1704
03:27
And this is accomplished using this kind of device,
76
195541
2333
03:29
and this is called deep brain stimulation.
77
197874
2461
03:32
So what we're doing is placing these electrodes throughout the brain.
78
200335
3071
03:35
Again, we are making holes in the skull about the size of a dime,
79
203406
3949
03:39
putting an electrode in, and then this electrode
80
207355
2151
03:41
is completely underneath the skin
81
209506
2228
03:43
down to a pacemaker in the chest,
82
211734
2090
03:45
and with a remote control very much like a television remote control,
83
213824
4528
03:50
we can adjust how much electricity we deliver
84
218352
2979
03:53
to these areas of the brain.
85
221331
2068
03:55
We can turn it up or down, on or off.
86
223399
2891
03:58
Now, about a hundred thousand patients in the world
87
226290
2655
04:00
have received deep brain stimulation,
88
228945
1876
04:02
and I'm going to show you some examples
89
230821
1154
04:03
of using deep brain stimulation to treat disorders of movement,
90
231975
2711
04:06
disorders of mood and disorders of cognition.
91
234686
4514
04:11
So this looks something like this when it's in the brain.
92
239200
2739
04:13
You see the electrode going through the skull into the brain
93
241939
2235
04:16
and resting there, and we can place this really anywhere in the brain.
94
244174
3183
04:19
I tell my friends that no neuron is safe
95
247357
2460
04:21
from a neurosurgeon, because we can really reach
96
249817
2182
04:23
just about anywhere in the brain quite safely now.
97
251999
2566
04:26
Now the first example I'm going to show you is a patient
98
254565
2520
04:29
with Parkinson's disease,
99
257085
1710
04:30
and this lady has Parkinson's disease,
100
258795
1987
04:32
and she has these electrodes in her brain,
101
260782
2310
04:35
and I'm going to show you what she's like
102
263092
1282
04:36
when the electrodes are turned off and she has her Parkinson's symptoms,
103
264374
3507
04:39
and then we're going to turn it on.
104
267881
2333
04:42
So this looks something like this.
105
270214
2695
04:44
The electrodes are turned off now, and you can see that she has tremor.
106
272909
4505
04:49
(Video) Man: Okay. Woman: I can't. Man: Can you try to touch my finger?
107
277420
3719
04:53
(Video) Man: That's a little better. Woman: That side is better.
108
281139
3625
04:56
We're now going to turn it on.
109
284764
3792
05:00
It's on. Just turned it on.
110
288556
4438
05:06
And this works like that, instantly.
111
294561
3263
05:09
And the difference between shaking in this way and not --
112
297824
2982
05:12
(Applause)
113
300806
4601
05:17
The difference between shaking in this way and not is related to the misbehavior
114
305407
4105
05:21
of 25,000 neurons in her subthalamic nucleus.
115
309512
3973
05:25
So we now know how to find these troublemakers
116
313485
2576
05:28
and tell them, "Gentlemen, that's enough.
117
316061
1391
05:29
We want you to stop doing that."
118
317452
1334
05:30
And we do that with electricity.
119
318786
1222
05:32
So we use electricity to dictate how they fire,
120
320008
3414
05:35
and we try to block their misbehavior using electricity.
121
323422
3462
05:38
So in this case, we are suppressing the activity of abnormal neurons.
122
326884
3444
05:42
We started using this technique in other problems,
123
330328
2562
05:44
and I'm going to tell you about a fascinating problem
124
332890
1402
05:46
that we encountered, a case of dystonia.
125
334292
3168
05:49
So dystonia is a disorder affecting children.
126
337460
2505
05:51
It's a genetic disorder, and it involves a twisting motion,
127
339965
3062
05:55
and these children get progressively more and more twisting
128
343027
2824
05:57
until they can't breathe, until they get sores,
129
345851
1991
05:59
urinary infections, and then they die.
130
347842
2031
06:01
So back in 1997, I was asked to see this young boy,
131
349873
3373
06:05
perfectly normal. He has this genetic form of dystonia.
132
353246
2956
06:08
There are eight children in the family.
133
356202
2219
06:10
Five of them have dystonia.
134
358421
3359
06:13
So here he is.
135
361780
2185
06:15
This boy is nine years old, perfectly normal until the age six,
136
363965
4186
06:20
and then he started twisting his body, first the right foot,
137
368151
4395
06:24
then the left foot, then the right arm, then the left arm,
138
372546
3420
06:27
then the trunk, and then by the time he arrived,
139
375966
3247
06:31
within the course of one or two years of the disease onset,
140
379213
2940
06:34
he could no longer walk, he could no longer stand.
141
382153
2320
06:36
He was crippled, and indeed the natural progression
142
384473
2698
06:39
as this gets worse is for them to become progressively twisted,
143
387171
3555
06:42
progressively disabled, and many of these children do not survive.
144
390726
5690
06:48
So he is one of five kids.
145
396416
2028
06:50
The only way he could get around was crawling on his belly like this.
146
398444
4094
06:54
He did not respond to any drugs.
147
402538
1956
06:56
We did not know what to do with this boy.
148
404494
1940
06:58
We did not know what operation to do,
149
406434
2116
07:00
where to go in the brain,
150
408550
2194
07:02
but on the basis of our results in Parkinson's disease,
151
410744
2773
07:05
we reasoned, why don't we try to suppress
152
413517
2005
07:07
the same area in the brain that we suppressed
153
415522
3097
07:10
in Parkinson's disease, and let's see what happens?
154
418619
3655
07:14
So here he was. We operated on him
155
422274
1787
07:16
hoping that he would get better. We did not know.
156
424061
3874
07:19
So here he is now, back in Israel where he lives,
157
427935
4127
07:24
three months after the procedure, and here he is.
158
432062
4053
07:28
(Applause)
159
436115
4950
07:36
On the basis of this result, this is now a procedure
160
444669
2621
07:39
that's done throughout the world,
161
447290
1248
07:40
and there have been hundreds of children
162
448538
1295
07:41
that have been helped with this kind of surgery.
163
449833
4207
07:46
This boy is now in university
164
454040
2117
07:48
and leads quite a normal life.
165
456157
2036
07:50
This has been one of the most satisfying cases
166
458193
2368
07:52
that I have ever done in my entire career,
167
460561
1979
07:54
to restore movement and walking to this kind of child.
168
462540
3377
07:57
(Applause)
169
465917
6255
08:04
We realized that perhaps we could use this technology
170
472172
2869
08:07
not only in circuits that control your movement
171
475041
2172
08:09
but also circuits that control other things,
172
477213
1952
08:11
and the next thing that we took on
173
479165
1147
08:12
was circuits that control your mood.
174
480312
2993
08:15
And we decided to take on depression,
175
483305
2076
08:17
and the reason we took on depression is because it's so prevalent,
176
485381
2259
08:19
and as you know, there are many treatments for depression,
177
487640
2544
08:22
with medication and psychotherapy,
178
490184
2037
08:24
even electroconvulsive therapy,
179
492221
2062
08:26
but there are millions of people,
180
494283
1334
08:27
and there are still 10 or 20 percent of patients with depression
181
495617
2792
08:30
that do not respond, and it is these patients that we want to help.
182
498409
3252
08:33
And let's see if we can use this technique
183
501661
2103
08:35
to help these patients with depression.
184
503764
2239
08:38
So the first thing we did was, we compared,
185
506003
1850
08:39
what's different in the brain of someone with depression
186
507853
1824
08:41
and someone who is normal,
187
509677
1668
08:43
and what we did was PET scans to look at the blood flow of the brain,
188
511345
3460
08:46
and what we noticed is that in patients with depression
189
514805
2369
08:49
compared to normals,
190
517174
2045
08:51
areas of the brain are shut down,
191
519219
1498
08:52
and those are the areas in blue.
192
520717
1265
08:53
So here you really have the blues,
193
521982
1620
08:55
and the areas in blue are areas that are involved
194
523602
3573
08:59
in motivation, in drive and decision-making,
195
527175
2656
09:01
and indeed, if you're severely depressed as these patients were,
196
529831
2495
09:04
those are impaired. You lack motivation and drive.
197
532326
2692
09:07
The other thing we discovered
198
535018
1879
09:08
was an area that was overactive, area 25,
199
536897
2489
09:11
seen there in red,
200
539386
1588
09:12
and area 25 is the sadness center of the brain.
201
540974
2657
09:15
If I make any of you sad, for example, I make you remember
202
543631
2873
09:18
the last time you saw your parent before they died
203
546504
2287
09:20
or a friend before they died,
204
548791
1633
09:22
this area of the brain lights up.
205
550424
1206
09:23
It is the sadness center of the brain.
206
551630
1723
09:25
And so patients with depression have hyperactivity.
207
553353
3212
09:28
The area of the brain for sadness is on red hot.
208
556565
2178
09:30
The thermostat is set at 100 degrees,
209
558743
2657
09:33
and the other areas of the brain, involved in drive and motivation, are shut down.
210
561400
3128
09:36
So we wondered, can we place electrodes in this area of sadness
211
564528
2997
09:39
and see if we can turn down the thermostat,
212
567525
2429
09:41
can we turn down the activity,
213
569954
1713
09:43
and what will be the consequence of that?
214
571667
2122
09:45
So we went ahead and implanted electrodes in patients with depression.
215
573789
3127
09:48
This is work done with my colleague Helen Mayberg from Emory.
216
576916
2487
09:51
And we placed electrodes in area 25,
217
579403
1934
09:53
and in the top scan you see before the operation,
218
581337
2285
09:55
area 25, the sadness area is red hot,
219
583622
2286
09:57
and the frontal lobes are shut down in blue,
220
585908
2394
10:00
and then, after three months of continuous stimulation,
221
588302
2408
10:02
24 hours a day, or six months of continuous stimulation,
222
590710
3015
10:05
we have a complete reversal of this.
223
593725
1774
10:07
We're able to drive down area 25,
224
595499
2839
10:10
down to a more normal level,
225
598338
1952
10:12
and we're able to turn back online
226
600290
2036
10:14
the frontal lobes of the brain,
227
602326
1308
10:15
and indeed we're seeing very striking results
228
603634
1869
10:17
in these patients with severe depression.
229
605503
2747
10:20
So now we are in clinical trials, and are in Phase III clinical trials,
230
608250
2902
10:23
and this may become a new procedure,
231
611152
2543
10:25
if it's safe and we find that it's effective,
232
613695
2183
10:27
to treat patients with severe depression.
233
615878
3674
10:31
I've shown you that we can use deep brain stimulation
234
619567
2960
10:34
to treat the motor system
235
622527
2087
10:36
in cases of Parkinson's disease and dystonia.
236
624614
2446
10:39
I've shown you that we can use it to treat a mood circuit
237
627060
2385
10:41
in cases of depression.
238
629445
1650
10:43
Can we use deep brain stimulation to make you smarter?
239
631095
4545
10:47
(Laughter)
240
635640
2096
10:49
Anybody interested in that?
241
637736
2566
10:52
(Applause)
242
640302
2300
10:54
Of course we can, right?
243
642602
2988
10:57
So what we've decided to do is
244
645590
2214
10:59
we're going to try to turbocharge
245
647804
2421
11:02
the memory circuits in the brain.
246
650225
2205
11:04
We're going to place electrodes within the circuits
247
652430
2736
11:07
that regulate your memory and cognitive function
248
655166
2676
11:09
to see if we can turn up their activity.
249
657842
3270
11:13
Now we're not going to do this in normal people.
250
661112
1938
11:15
We're going to do this in people that have cognitive deficits,
251
663050
3652
11:18
and we've chosen to treat patients with Alzheimer's disease
252
666702
3459
11:22
who have cognitive and memory deficits.
253
670161
2107
11:24
As you know, this is the main symptom
254
672268
1939
11:26
of early onset Alzheimer's disease.
255
674207
2423
11:28
So we've placed electrodes within this circuit
256
676630
2194
11:30
in an area of the brain called the fornix,
257
678824
1995
11:32
which is the highway in and out of this memory circuit,
258
680819
2778
11:35
with the idea to see if we can turn on this memory circuit,
259
683597
3428
11:39
and whether that can, in turn, help these patients
260
687025
3249
11:42
with Alzheimer's disease.
261
690274
2309
11:44
Now it turns out that in Alzheimer's disease,
262
692583
2318
11:46
there's a huge deficit in glucose utilization in the brain.
263
694901
4072
11:50
The brain is a bit of a hog when it comes to using glucose.
264
698973
3418
11:54
It uses 20 percent of all your --
265
702391
1760
11:56
even though it only weighs two percent --
266
704151
1515
11:57
it uses 10 times more glucose than it should based on its weight.
267
705666
3145
12:00
Twenty percent of all the glucose in your body is used by the brain,
268
708811
2583
12:03
and as you go from being normal
269
711394
2430
12:05
to having mild cognitive impairment,
270
713824
2193
12:08
which is a precursor for Alzheimer's, all the way to Alzheimer's disease,
271
716017
2455
12:10
then there are areas of the brain that stop using glucose.
272
718472
2689
12:13
They shut down. They turn off.
273
721161
2295
12:15
And indeed, what we see is that these areas in red
274
723456
2282
12:17
around the outside ribbon of the brain
275
725738
1767
12:19
are progressively getting more and more blue
276
727505
2276
12:21
until they shut down completely.
277
729781
3172
12:24
This is analogous to having a power failure
278
732953
2359
12:27
in an area of the brain, a regional power failure.
279
735312
2543
12:29
So the lights are out in parts of the brain
280
737855
2397
12:32
in patients with Alzheimer's disease,
281
740252
2598
12:34
and the question is, are the lights out forever,
282
742850
2409
12:37
or can we turn the lights back on?
283
745259
2861
12:40
Can we get those areas of the brain to use glucose once again?
284
748120
3236
12:43
So this is what we did. We implanted electrodes in the fornix
285
751356
2550
12:45
of patients with Alzheimer's disease, we turned it on,
286
753906
2613
12:48
and we looked at what happens to glucose use in the brain.
287
756519
3511
12:52
And indeed, at the top, you'll see before the surgery,
288
760030
3262
12:55
the areas in blue are the areas that use less glucose than normal,
289
763292
3364
12:58
predominantly the parietal and temporal lobes.
290
766656
2208
13:00
These areas of the brain are shut down.
291
768864
1710
13:02
The lights are out in these areas of the brain.
292
770574
2675
13:05
We then put in the DBS electrodes and we wait for a month
293
773249
2954
13:08
or a year, and the areas in red
294
776203
1391
13:09
represent the areas where we increase glucose utilization.
295
777594
3307
13:12
And indeed, we are able to get these areas of the brain
296
780901
2120
13:15
that were not using glucose to use glucose once again.
297
783021
3514
13:18
So the message here is that, in Alzheimer's disease,
298
786535
2352
13:20
the lights are out, but there is someone home,
299
788887
2329
13:23
and we're able to turn the power back on
300
791216
2149
13:25
to these areas of the brain, and as we do so,
301
793365
2306
13:27
we expect that their functions will return.
302
795671
2936
13:30
So this is now in clinical trials.
303
798607
2127
13:32
We are going to operate on 50 patients
304
800734
1901
13:34
with early Alzheimer's disease
305
802635
1978
13:36
to see whether this is safe and effective,
306
804613
2057
13:38
whether we can improve their neurologic function.
307
806670
2979
13:41
(Applause)
308
809649
7480
13:49
So the message I want to leave you with today is that,
309
817129
2948
13:52
indeed, there are several circuits in the brain
310
820077
2604
13:54
that are malfunctioning across various disease states,
311
822681
3926
13:58
whether we're talking about Parkinson's disease,
312
826607
2208
14:00
depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's.
313
828815
3082
14:03
We are now learning to understand what are the circuits,
314
831897
3030
14:06
what are the areas of the brain that are responsible for
315
834927
2202
14:09
the clinical signs and the symptoms of those diseases.
316
837129
2520
14:11
We can now reach those circuits.
317
839649
2306
14:13
We can introduce electrodes within those circuits.
318
841955
2632
14:16
We can graduate the activity of those circuits.
319
844587
2982
14:19
We can turn them down if they are overactive,
320
847569
3252
14:22
if they're causing trouble, trouble that is felt throughout the brain,
321
850821
2957
14:25
or we can turn them up if they are underperforming,
322
853778
2581
14:28
and in so doing, we think that we may be able to help
323
856359
2393
14:30
the overall function of the brain.
324
858752
2340
14:33
The implications of this, of course, is that we may be able
325
861092
2554
14:35
to modify the symptoms of the disease,
326
863646
2310
14:37
but I haven't told you but there's also some evidence
327
865956
1909
14:39
that we might be able to help the repair of damaged areas of the brain using electricity,
328
867865
4163
14:44
and this is something for the future, to see if, indeed,
329
872028
2452
14:46
we not only change the activity but also
330
874480
2239
14:48
some of the reparative functions of the brain
331
876719
2014
14:50
can be harvested.
332
878733
1555
14:52
So I envision that we're going to see a great expansion
333
880288
3047
14:55
of indications of this technique.
334
883335
2452
14:57
We're going to see electrodes being placed for many disorders of the brain.
335
885787
2779
15:00
One of the most exciting things about this is that, indeed,
336
888566
2959
15:03
it involves multidisciplinary work.
337
891525
1847
15:05
It involves the work of engineers, of imaging scientists,
338
893372
2802
15:08
of basic scientists, of neurologists,
339
896174
2202
15:10
psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, and certainly at the interface
340
898376
2752
15:13
of these multiple disciplines that there's the excitement.
341
901128
2941
15:16
And I think that we will see that
342
904069
2757
15:18
we will be able to chase more of these evil spirits
343
906826
3436
15:22
out from the brain as time goes on,
344
910262
1896
15:24
and the consequence of that, of course, will be
345
912158
1902
15:26
that we will be able to help many more patients.
346
914060
2272
15:28
Thank you very much.
347
916332
1250
Translated by Joseph Geni
Reviewed by Morton Bast

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Andres Lozano - Neurosurgeon
The chair of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, Andres Lozano has pioneered the use of deep brain stimulation for treating Parkinson’s, depression, anorexia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Why you should listen

Andres Lozano remembers the most satisfying case of his career – helping a boy with a genetic form of dystonia which had twisted his body to the point where he was only able to crawl on his stomach. While he didn’t respond to drugs, he responded wonderfully to deep brain stimulation. Three months after surgery, he was walking like a normal child. He’s now a college student leading a normal life.

Lozano is a pioneer in deep brain stimulation. His team has mapped out areas of the human brain and pioneered novel surgical approaches to treat disorders like Parkinson’s disease, depression, dystonia, anorexia, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease. The chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, he holds both the R.R. Tasker Chair in Functional Neurosurgery at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience.

Lozano has over 400 publications, serves on the board of several international organizations and is a founding member of the scientific advisory board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He has received a number of awards including the Olivecrona Medal and the Pioneer in Medicine award, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and has received the Order of Spain.

More profile about the speaker
Andres Lozano | Speaker | TED.com