Latest news with #TranscranialMagneticStimulation
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Pussy Riot Artist Is Back in Prison (This Time, by Design)
Nadya Tolokonnikova, the founder of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, has long experienced the threat — and reality — of government surveillance. After the group's anti-Putin, balaclava-wearing, punk-inspired performance at Moscow's main Orthodox Cathedral in 2012, she spent nearly two years in Russian prison. On her release, she was tracked by the police. Since 2021, the year when she was declared a 'foreign agent' by Russia's ministry of justice, she has lived in exile, bouncing from city to city in what she calls a state of 'geo-anonymity.' Next month, the outspoken Russian activist and artist will be subject to another kind of surveillance — in a jail of her own making. From June 5 to 14, Tolokonnikova, 35, will be spending her days in a corrugated-steel replica of a decrepit Russian prison cell, installed at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Los Angeles. She will eat, drink and use the toilet in her 'cell,' and will perform some of her aggressive noise-music rage-screeds there. Visitors can watch her through peep holes and a security camera feed. 'It's my first durational performance,' she said, using a term for the stamina-testing genre popularized by the artist Marina Abramovic, who is a close friend. Tolokonnikova was sipping tea at a long, pink-rimmed table in the shape of a Russian Orthodox cross — her own design — in a temporary studio in Los Angeles. 'I'm used to the intensity of short outbursts of energy.' The MOCA show, 'Police State,' is in one sense a reckoning with her incarceration, during which she went on three hunger strikes and published an open letter describing 'slavery-like conditions.' She recalls how women in her penal colony were forced to work 17-hour shifts in a sewing factory at risk of injuries and even death. She has since tried TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), anti-depressants and psychotherapy to process the experience, with mixed results. 'For me personally talk therapy didn't work — I don't love to talk about my feelings. But I'm interested in renegotiating trauma, rewriting your own personal history to bring your creativity into the mix,' she said. 'This is art therapy, basically.' At another level, the museum show is a condemnation of carceral conditions and human rights violations in her homeland and beyond. The idea came, she said, after she saw a concrete-box replica of the brutal solitary cell used to confine her friend and mentor, the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024. Tolokonnikova called this installation, created by his younger brother, Oleg, 'one of the best works of public art and political art I've seen. 'The police state isn't a distant experience for me and those I care about,' she added in her soft-spoken cadences — the message more pointed than the delivery. 'Russia has more than a thousand political prisoners, whose only fault was to say that the emperor is naked. The best people of Russia are behind bars.' Since 'Police State' is debuting during a time of high-profile detentions and deportations by the Trump administration, it is bound to be read as a critique of this government's actions as well. 'I think she's really speaking to the current political moment,' said Alex Sloane, the associate curator of MOCA, who is developing the project. 'We can't see these things — the human rights abuses, government overreach and the targeting of specific communities — as being isolated to Russia any more.' Or as Tolokonnikova quipped at the studio: 'Authoritarianism is like a sexually transmitted disease — you have it before you know it.' She went on to describe the rise of a 'tech-bro oligarchy' in the United States and rapidly shifting international alliances, which she said could impact her safety. 'Travel has become increasingly dangerous for me, mostly because I was put on this international wanted list by Russia at the start of the year, but also because of Trump becoming more friendly with Putin.' She pulled out a bag of red foam clown noses, offered me one and popped one on herself. She broke out laughing and suddenly looked like a goofy teenager, her black plaid skirt giving strong schoolgirl vibes. 'Imagine being so serious and worrying about your safety all the time. Put the clown nose on and everything is just fine,' she said, noting that she originally used the noses to 'troll' her clown-fearing husband, John Caldwell. This tension between gravity and levity, and a razor-sharp sense of humor, infuses many of her artworks. While she continues to organize some collective street actions under the Pussy Riot rubric, she has recently been showing painting and sculpture, or more accurately objects akin to them, in gallery and museum settings under her own name. Her first solo museum show, 'RAGE,' opened at OK Linz in Austria last summer. This month, she has one exhibition at Nagel Draxler gallery in Berlin, 'Wanted,' and another at Honor Fraser in Los Angeles, 'Punk's Not Dead.' And surrounding the mock prison cell at MOCA, she is installing her artworks and sculptural elements, including a gumball machine she's filling with colorful balls marked with the names of poisons, like Polonium and Novichok, which have been used on Russian dissidents. The centerpiece of 'Punk's Not Dead' is a stainless steel slide that you might imagine on a playground if its surface did not resemble a supersized cheese grater. The show also contains several of her new 'Icons' paintings, embellished with medieval Cyrillic calligraphy, enigmatic crosses and other invented symbols of devotion. 'Punk's Not Dead' began with a January residency at Honor Fraser, where Tolokonnikova gave an earsplitting performance as part of the group Pussy Riot Siberia. Her musical instruments were aluminum riot shields that she 'played' by scratching them with brass knuckles and other tools and carving them with hearts and anarchy signs. The riot shields now hang in the gallery like a vandalized series by Donald Judd. The gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who gave her a pop-up show in 2023, said he is not surprised that Tolokonnikova is increasingly using galleries and museums as a media platform. 'From the very beginning she's been an artist,' he said. 'When Pussy Riot did their famous performance at the Moscow cathedral, they were not a group of trained musicians but really performance artists.' Now, he added, 'you have this integration of performance, art, activism and this charismatic persona — she wraps it all together.' Still, it hasn't been easy for Tolokonnikova to find venues for her art. 'Someone told me the art world is harder to navigate than Russian jail,' she said, smiling at the thought. But so far, she said, 'having people tell me no or ghosting me is annoying' but nothing like having 'a squad of riot police invade your exhibit.' A more substantial challenge: bringing something of the live-wire intensity of street performance into the museum world. 'It's much more explosive and abrasive to perform something for 40 seconds, when you have to deliver a message before you're dragged by the feet by the police,' she acknowledged. 'But after I got out of jail it became almost impossible for me to make work in the same way because I was under police surveillance 24-7 and my phone was tapped. 'I didn't want to get killed,' she added, 'so I was pushed into the studio work.' She said she's learning from artists like Abramovic, Valie Export and Yoko Ono, who have made provocative work within safe spaces. She also speaks admiringly of the 'total installations' of the Russian artist Ilya Kabakov, who would go so far as to recreate grimy Soviet-era apartments in the name of art. Her first solo gallery show, at Deitch's gallery in 2023, featured the multipart project, 'Putin's Ashes.' Outraged by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, she invited women who shared her anger — Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian — to join her in the desert for a ritualistic burning of a portrait of the Russian president. At the end of the performance, documented in a short film, she deposited the ashes into glass vials. Deitch showed both the film and vials, which she had shrouded, using her prison-era sewing skills, in fake fur. The exhibition prompted the Russian government to file a new criminal charge against her for insulting religious believers; placement on a 'most wanted criminals' list and a warrant for her 'arrest in absentia' followed. 'My job for quite a while, the last 15 years of my activism, is to hurt Vladimir Putin as much as I humanly can,' she told MSNBC'S Lawrence O'Donnell, 'and the instrument of my war is my art. We know that he's incredibly superstitious, so he might actually be afraid.' When 'Putin's Ashes' traveled to a gallery in Santa Fe, she experimented with recreating some elements of a Russian prison cell and hung out there for a while on opening night, using a homemade shiv to carve some graffiti into a wooden table. As an introvert, albeit one with exhibitionist tendencies, she said she found it a convenient way to avoid small talk with the crowd. In her MOCA cell she will be installing some drawings made by Russian political prisoners, including Valeria Zotova, who is serving a six-year prison sentence after being accused of planning a terrorist attack. Tolokonnikova will also play a keyboard and other instruments, layered with audio tracks from actual prisons. 'The music is going to be at times very gentle and beautiful and reminiscent of my childhood,' she said, explaining that she will sing lullabies that remind her of her mother, who died last summer in Russia. At other times, 'there are going to be screams of pain, or screams of rage, screams of power.' She is rehearsing the music, but not training physically, for the project. 'It's not as strict as Marina's performance,' she said, referring to Abramovic's physically punishing 2010 durational work, 'The Artist Is Present,' at the Museum of Modern Art. 'It's not about putting physical constraints on my body — I've done that enough in an actual prison environment. Yes, I can go without food for 10 days,' she said. 'To repeat it in a museum environment to me would almost look like a gimmick. What's interesting to me is to be this living and breathing heart of the installation.'
NDTV
13-05-2025
- NDTV
US Man Fatally Stabs Wife, 2 Sons, Then Kills Himself In Murder-Suicide
A 42-year-old man in the United States allegedly killed his wife, two children and then died by suicide, authorities in Nebraska said. According to the Independent, Jeremy Koch fatally stabbed his wife, Bailey, 41, and two sons, Hudson, 18, and Asher, 16, before turning the knife on himself. The family of four were found dead with fatal knife wounds at their Johnson Lake home on Saturday. The incident took place just days after Koch was released from a psychiatric hospital, according to the officials. An investigation is ongoing, and the Dawson County Attorney has ordered autopsies for the four family members, the Independent reported. "The Nebraska State Patrol, the Dawson County Sheriff's Office, Eustis Fire & Rescue and the Dawson County Attorney extend condolences to all, across multiple communities, who will be affected by this incident," the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) said in a statement. Bailey Koch's father, Lane Kugler, said that he found the bodies of all four victims in the home. He also said that his son-in-law, Jeremy Koch, had struggled with his mental health for years and that his wife was trying to get him help. "What I saw will haunt me the rest of my life," Kugler wrote in a Facebook post. "This country's mental health care is a disaster. A catastrophe. Broken. And it's not getting any better, it's getting worse," he added. Days before the incident, Bailey, a special education teacher in Holdrege, said that Koch had been released from a mental health hospital three days earlier. In another post, she said that her husband, whom she had first started dating in high school 25 years ago, was "diagnosed with severe depression in 2009". "I have no pride left," she wrote, adding, "Mental illness is taking my husband from me, and I'm begging you to open your eyes and see the reality that is this society's mental health crisis." In a GoFundMe page, launched just days before the incident, Bailey said that her husband's condition worsened in 2024, and in March. She also claimed that she awoke to her husband standing over her with a knife. In her last Facebook post, Bailey said that they had submitted paperwork to their insurer in an attempt for Koch to be approved for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation treatments, a non-invasive brain stimulation technique used for treating mental health conditions. "Jeremy had been fighting mental illness for many, many years. His depression had turned into psychosis. It was not Jeremy that committed this horrific act. It was a sick mind," Bailey's parents wrote on their joint Facebook page. According to the outlet, the deaths occurred hours before the oldest son's high school graduation. "Cozad Schools was made aware of a tragic situation that will deeply affect our Cozad community," the school district wrote. "In light of yesterday's tragedy, we understand that some students may be experiencing some difficulties," it added in a separate update Sunday. The investigation into the deaths is ongoing, said the Nebraska State Patrol.
Time Business News
04-05-2025
- Health
- Time Business News
Advances in Portable Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): Mechanism, Applications, and Global Validation
Introduction Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ( TMS ) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique that relies on electromagnetic induction to modulate neural activity. Recent advances have introduced portable, low-intensity TMS devices, which offer greater safety and accessibility at the cost of slightly reduced efficacy. This paper presents the principles of TMS, its validated applications, and the benefits of next-generation wearable devices. The availability of CE-certified TMS equipment ensures safety compliance and quality in both clinical and home-use settings. Mechanism of Action TMS operates based on Faraday's Law of electromagnetic induction: an alternating magnetic field generated by a coil induces an electric current in the targeted region of the brain. This current modulates neuronal membrane potentials, thereby stimulating or blocking synaptic activity depending on the stimulation parameters: · High-frequency stimulation (≥5 Hz): Enhances cortical excitability, for example, in the treatment of depression. · Low-frequency stimulation (≤1 Hz): Blocks overly active neural networks, such as those involved in migraines. The plasticity of TMS effects is frequency-dependent, providing the foundation for its treatment flexibility. Clinical Validation Internationally, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation has been recognized as a valid treatment for several conditions: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): · Approved by the FDA since 2008 for patients with treatment-resistant depression. · A 1997 placebo-controlled trial demonstrated that daily left prefrontal stimulation resulted in a 5-point decrease on the Hamilton Depression Scale. Migraine: · Approved by the FDA for pain relief; it modulates cortical excitability related to aura and pain circuits. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): · Approved in 2018; it corrects aberrant prefrontal-limbic circuits. Schizophrenia (Auditory Hallucinations): · Recent randomized controlled trials (RCTs) show remarkable symptom reduction using image-guided protocols. New applications are emerging in Parkinson's disease, stroke recovery, and cognitive impairment. Target Populations · Treatment-resistant adults: Ideal candidates for depression and OCD. · Geriatric and pediatric patients: Evidence of safety is increasing for both groups. · Contraindications: Individuals with implanted metal hardware (e.g., pacemakers) or a history of epilepsy should avoid TMS. Global Efficacy and Safety Validation · FDA Approvals: MDD (2008), migraines (2013), OCD (2018). · Clinical Trials: Meta-analyses validate depression response rates of 50–60%, significantly higher than placebo responses. · Safety Profile: Side effects are mild (e.g., brief headaches, scalp soreness); the risk of seizures is less than 0.1% with prudent use. Manufacturers now provide TMS/RTMS machine factory wholesale price options, making this advanced therapy more affordable for clinics worldwide. Portable TMS Devices: Redefining Access Researchers have developed a wearable repetitive TMS (rTMS) device (3 kg, battery-operated) that delivers 10% of the energy of regular devices but achieves similar therapeutic amplitudes. Key advantages include: Precise Weak Magnetic Fields: Optimized coil geometries deliver therapeutic stimulation at reduced intensities (e.g., 3–18 mT) with minimal discomfort. Home and Community Application: Enables high-frequency modulation during daily activities (e.g., walking), enhancing convenience beyond clinical settings. Closed-Loop Integration: Future devices may integrate with real-time brain signal monitoring for personalized treatment. Benefits Over Current Therapies · Drug-Free and Non-invasive: Avoids systemic side effects associated with antidepressants. · Minimum Downtime: Sessions last 20–40 minutes, allowing immediate resumption of activities. · Personalizable Protocols: Parameters (intensity, frequency) can be tailored to individual motor thresholds and symptoms. Conclusion Portable TMS represents a neuromodulation innovation that combines decades of clinical evidence with cutting-edge engineering. Its low-field technology, consistent efficacy across neuropsychiatric disorders, and minimal side effects make it a promising option for decentralized mental health treatment. Further research will optimize stimulation parameters and expand applications, solidifying its role in modern medicine. As global demand increases, sourcing reliable CE-certified TMS equipment and leveraging TMS/rTMS machine factory wholesale price options will be essential in expanding accessibility and affordability. References Integrated from peer-reviewed trials, FDA guidelines, and advancements in device technology. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Contact information: WhatsApp: +44 7410558633 Email address : lianlianzhng@ TIME BUSINESS NEWS
