Penfield Mood Organs Just Around the Corner...
Today's Washington Post reports that scientists are experimenting with "brain pacemakers" with surprisingly successful results:
A handful of scientists around the world have begun cautiously experimenting with devices implanted in patients' bodies to deliver precisely targeted electrical stimulation to the brain in hopes of treating otherwise hopeless behavioral, neurological and psychiatric disorders.
While stressing that the ethically sensitive research with "brain pacemakers" has just begun, the scientists say the results so far have been so promising that it could mark the beginning of a new era in treating often intractable cases.
[snip]
Large trials are planned in Europe and the United States to control the worst cases of epilepsy. Small pilot studies have begun for patients with the most devastating, resistant forms of depression and for obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD], a sometimes disabling psychiatric condition marked by repetitive thoughts and routines.
French researchers have begun testing on monkeys to see whether the devices might suppress appetite, and perhaps boost metabolism, in obese people. Some researchers are thinking about how they might use the technique to overcome addictions.
Doctors already use "brain pacemakers" to treat Parkinson's disease. They are also applying the technology successfully to treat OCD, because the disease's brain physiology is fairly well understood:
Before her operation, Kelly Fahrenkrug was tormented by such thoughts -- pounding, relentless fears of being contaminated by some ominous but amorphous threat outside her home.
"It's like your own brain torturing you. It's just constant repetitive thoughts and routines, and being very afraid all the time," said Fahrenkrug, 34, a housewife and mother in Davenport, Iowa.
Today, her obsessive thoughts have quieted. They are not gone. But they are hushed. Fahrenkrug can do things that once seemed impossible -- run errands, ferry her daughter around town, entertain friends.
"It just sort of eased up is how I'd describe it. It was gradual. I just noticed a lift in my mood. I just started to notice things were better," she said.
It's just a matter of time before you'll be able to dial into your brain any psychological state you want (including the desire to dial a state, in case you don't feel like dialing).
6:02:33 PM 
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