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Deep brain stimulation

Y

yaesutom

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Oct 15, 2000
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I was watching this BBC documentary thing and near the end they show this lady who was the first to get an implant for depression, and they're testing out different levels/settings over several days, it shows her going "ohh! i feel happy there!" "i don't want it to stop giggle".

http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...WFNSYDgIYH0-wHQ5_28Cw&q=bbc&hl=en&emb=1&dur=3

(it starts at about 44 minutes into the video)

This has always fascinated me, like... does anyone know whats making her happy, more dopamine or what? Cause that right there looks like it'd be like the ultimate drug. They don't say what happens in the brain after some current is applied (although they mention its usually just used for parkinsons)
 
It's either transcranial magnetic stimulation making her happy, or it's electrodes planted directly into the brain. There's a lot of different spots you can plant 'em that are reinforcing (VTA, nucleus accumbens, etc) and then some that are "liking" (periaqueductal gray) but either way, it's not a neurotransmitter issue as much as it is *direct* opening of ion channels, etc via current.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sciencea...2/Sex-chip-being-developed-by-scientists.html
'Sex chip' being developed by scientists
Scientists are developing an electronic "sex chip" that can be implanted into the brain to stimulate pleasure.

The chip works by sending tiny shocks from implanted electrodes in the brain.

The technology has been used in the United States to treat Parkinson's disease.

But in recent months scientists have been focusing on the area of the brain just behind the eyes known as the orbitofrontal cortex - this is associated with feelings of pleasure derived from eating and sex.

A research survey conducted by Morten Kringelbach, senior fellow at Oxford University's department of psychiatry, found the orbitofrontal cortex could be a "new stimulation target" to help people suffering from anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure from such activities. His findings are reported in the Nature Reviews Neuroscience journal.

Neurosurgery professor Tipu Aziz, said: "There is evidence that this chip will work. A few years ago a scientist implanted such a device into the brain of a woman with a low sex drive and turned her into a very sexually active woman. She didn't like the sudden change, so the wiring in her head was removed."

He added however that the current technology, which requires surgery to connect a wire from a heart pacemaker into the brain, can cause bleeding and is "intrusive and crude".

He continued: "When the technology is improved, we can use deep brain stimulation in many new areas. It will be more subtle, with more control over the power so you may be able to turn the chip on and off when needed.

"In 10 years' time the range of therapies available will be amazing – we don't know half the possibilities yet."

An electronic machine, named the Orgasmatron, taken from the 1973 Woody Allen film Sleeper, is already under development by a North Carolina doctor, who is modifying a spinal cord stimulator to produce pleasure in women.
Click to expand...

heh just noticed that in the news today
 
from what I've read in the past, its a contemporary lobotomy.
You better research this shit EXTENSIVELY before you even THINK about putting fucking electrodes in your brain. I can imagine the slightest mistake made in position would be fuck-all for your cognition and possibly life.
 
Look here, a lady became brain-dead after deep brain stimulation.
http://www.breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87

The patient, Mrs. Mary Lou Zimmerman, was 58 at the time of the surgery and suffered from persistent obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. In a single operation she was subjected to four lesions in her brain produced by heated electrodes inserted through her skull into her brain tissue. The lesions, approximately one-half inch in diameter, were placed two each in the anterior cingulum and the internal capsule of the brain. These areas contain large fiber tracts that connect nerve cells (neurons) throughout the brain. Damage and destruction in these pathways leads to neuronal cell death and dysfunction in the specific areas as well as multiple other areas throughout the brain through a process called retrograde degeneration. As a result of the surgery and a subsequent abscess in her brain, the patient developed dementia and became mute and emotionally disabled. The neurosurgeon was Dr. Gene Barnett.


After the suit was brought, the Cleveland Clinic stopped performing this kind of psychosurgery involving the outright destruction of brain tissue. At trial, only two other existing psychosurgery projects were identified in the United States, one at Harvard Medical School and the other at Brown University.
Click to expand...
 
Where is there evidence that the effects can be reinforcing? I can't find it, but I'd love to see it!!
 
Hell, I'd love to see either. I'd love to be addicted to shocking my brain!
 
http://www.abolitionist-society.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2617&sid=8208792a579cd91c465496d8491c95c6

"The symptoms consisted of
pressured speech, hyperactivity, flirtatiousness, overoptimistic thought,
mildly increased appetite, high spirits/euphoria, jocularity, and a
decreased need for sleep. Neither patient was at any time psychotic, nor was
either patient at any time in a position to present any real and immediate
danger to himself or herself or others.

In both cases, rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation was immediately
withdrawn."

The trick to get and keep a reinforcing magnet or other device is to not tell the doctors putting it in, who tell you to tell them if you feel euphoric. Do not grin a wide silly grin on the operating chair as your ventral tegmetal area receives electricity. Remember, they are anti-fun and will scootch the device far, far away (likely to somewhere boring) if you alert them to your rising joy. At the two-week followup, do not proposition them or ask if they want to read the novel you just wrote while sitting in the waiting room.

Afterwards I imagine it's smoooooove sailing.
 
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Note - the above post was jest and I don't recommend doing anything to confuse the neurologists charged with care and handling of novel technology implanted deep into your skull, unless you're awesome.
 
But in recent months scientists have been focusing on the area of the brain just behind the eyes known as the orbitofrontal cortex - this is associated with feelings of pleasure derived from eating and sex.

A research survey conducted by Morten Kringelbach, senior fellow at Oxford University's department of psychiatry, found the orbitofrontal cortex could be a "new stimulation target" to help people suffering from anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure from such activities. His findings are reported in the Nature Reviews Neuroscience journal.
Click to expand...

This is interesting -- anhedonia is associated with excessive activity of the orbitofrontal cortex. And a deficit of activity in the ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens. I suppose their stimulation is inhibiting? "Loosen up", ZAP!
 
The trick to get and keep a reinforcing magnet or other device is to not tell the doctors putting it in, who tell you to tell them if you feel euphoric. Do not grin a wide silly grin on the operating chair as your ventral tegmetal area receives electricity. Remember, they are anti-fun and will scootch the device far, far away (likely to somewhere boring) if you alert them to your rising joy. At the two-week followup, do not proposition them or ask if they want to read the novel you just wrote while sitting in the waiting room.
Click to expand...

lol, yeah I think about this whenever I see anything about these implants on TV.. i'd think "well if I was in that position, and they asked me to tell them how I felt i'd let them crank it up higher before I told them about any 'euphoria'"
 
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