mad neuroscience, brain implants, brains, depression, implants, medicine, ocd, psychology...

The Data Is In: Brain Implants Can Make You Happy

For over a decade researchers have been treating many different ailments, including depression, with electrodes lodged deep in the brain. Devices like this Soletra brain implant deliver electrical impulses to a targeted brain region, essentially creating artificial activity in an area that the brain won't activate on its own. While there have been anecdotal reports that brain implants can help people with depression or OCD, now there is solid proof. A long-range study being presented at the upcoming meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons demonstrates how patients, over a 10-year period with brain implants, gained increasing control over their moods and obsessive behaviors.

Medgadget has the news:

All of the studies being presented used the Medtronic DBS system to stimulate a target within the brain called the ventral anterior limb of the internal capsule/ventral striatum (VC/VS), which is a central node in the neural circuits that regulate mood and anxiety.

"The data we are presenting on 43 patients is the result of more than 10 years of work across multiple institutions worldwide. These data represent the largest number and the longest evaluation of patients with psychiatric disorders who have undergone DBS implants, including some with long-term follow up," said [Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon] Dr. Ali Rezai, who represented an international working group of physicians studying DBS therapy for treatment resistant OCD and depression. "While OCD and depression treatment with DBS require additional clinical evaluation research, our early open-label experience to date is encouraging and indicates that DBS may help severely disabled and suffering patients who have exhausted other treatment options."

I know it sounds selfish of me when there are so many people who need these implants to feel better, but I'm still waiting for a brain implant that's designed for enhancement. Kind of like implanted Provigil or something. Or maybe an orgasm implant, instant orgasms to pass the time? I'm just saying.

Deep Brain Stimulation Useful for Severe Depression and OCD [Medgadget]

11:34 AM on Tue Apr 29 2008
By Annalee Newitz
936 views
25 comments

Comments

braak at 11:39 AM on 04/29/08
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Connectedness Index: 990

Oh, man. They should use that guy who's happy all the time to map out where to put these suckers into everyone else's heads.
Goodnightbabytron at 11:48 AM on 04/29/08
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Have you tried Provigil? It kinda has that last effect you're looking for...
MilesFromNowhere at 11:48 AM on 04/29/08
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The Terminal Man is in.
Castle1914 at 12:00 PM on 04/29/08
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Why is everyone so obsessed with being happy? Why can't they be happy with being obsessed?

How many poems about being happy would you want to read. How many constantly happy people write good novels?
russdanger at 12:08 PM on 04/29/08
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Aldous Huxley didn't see THIS coming...
tetracycloide at 12:21 PM on 04/29/08
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Connectedness Index: 114

If the purpose of a human being's existance is to try to increase their own personal happiness isn't this kinda... breaking the 4th wall or something? I mean if it's possible to keep a brain alive in a jar and just zap the happy zone all day long and that the conciousness of that brain is happier in that state than any other won't the be the ultimate goal? I guess the more deadweight we loose to the carrot on a stick phenom the better. Prepare for a future of obsessive geniuses furiously working away in solitue while the masses are kept alive in brain jars by robots. It's like the matrix only zion is full of crazy people that are more interested in proving string theory than rescuing anyone and the machines couldn't be bothered to attack them.
Goodnightbabytron at 12:23 PM on 04/29/08
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You'd think the machines could have come up with this before whole crops were lost.
X: The Eliminator at 12:29 PM on 04/29/08
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happy happy happy happy happy happy
altogether now:

Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy joy

I don't think you're happy enough. That's right! I'll teach you to be
happy. I'll teach your grandmother to suck eggs.

repeat
Klebert L. Hall at 12:29 PM on 04/29/08
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Okay, I can't help myself - the title should be "The Data Are In:"...

@russdanger:

Nope, but Larry Niven did.

-Kle.
Bob_of_Mars at 12:41 PM on 04/29/08
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I haven't read th article yet (I know I'll enjoy it and it will be informative and mind altering (no pun intended), but as a nerd I just have to say this: DATA ARE PLURAL!!!
Annalee Newitz at 12:46 PM on 04/29/08
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Connectedness Index: 344

@Klebert L. Hall: Sorry, the Oxford English Dictionary says data can be used as a singular noun. [www.askoxford.com]
Jeff-Minor at 01:09 PM on 04/29/08
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Saying something Can be used is not the same thing as Should be used. Data are plural. Datum is sigular. Damn the OED! And one of my ancestors helped compile a good deal of it. He was also insane.
Evil Tortie's Mom at 01:22 PM on 04/29/08
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@Jeff-Minor: Oh, THAT guy! I've read about him.
Priam at 01:24 PM on 04/29/08
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I just want a want a universal translator. Is that so wrong?
Ghede at 01:33 PM on 04/29/08
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@Castle1914: @tetracycloide:
People, depression isn't a momentary sadness. It is the absolute inability to be happy, often for no reason whatsoever. You spend your free time either staring into space, sleeping, or crying. Often increased irritability and irrational anger are experienced. Even routine things like personal hygiene or leaving the house become difficult. Why bother? Not being depressed doesn't mean you are constantly happy, it just means when you aren't happy, you are just sad, angry, bored, or whatever. Being depressed is NOT normal sadness.

OCD isn't just obsession, it is compulsion. A guy who collects minnie-mouse figurines from the early days of Disney and can tell you every detail about Mickey mouse animation is obsessed, but he can have a day job and do things not relating to Mickey Mouse. OCD is being obsessed about inconsequential things and having a compulsion that overrides other concerns. A good example is being obsessed about the orientation of your carpet tassles, and if you don't get them just right you can't think about anything else. It would be the equivalent of being a comic book collector watching a #1 having the pages ripped out one-by-one while tied to a chair.

This isn't about increasing personal happiness, that is what hobbies and recreational drugs are for, these are about giving you the ability to live your life. A functional person suffering from full-blown OCD or depression is extremely fucking rare. Untreated, they don't remain functional for long. That's not to say that all people prescribed zoloft because they asked about the commercial are depressed, that is more of a fault of the doctor diagnosing than the DSM-IV.

I have to ask if either of you even read the article past the title, because while the title of the article is misleading, the article itself is spot on: "A long-range study being presented at the upcoming meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons demonstrates how patients, over a 10-year period with brain implants, gained increasing control over their moods and obsessive behaviors." Notice how it doesn't say "Were always happy all the time and never cared about anything ever." They just gained the ability to believe "Carpet tassles? Who cares?" or "It's not all bad."

The orgasm implant sounds a little lazy to me. If you aren't willing to put in the effort to even jerk the gherkin or flick the bean, let alone seek out other human beings for that exact purpose you don't deserve an orgasm.
Jeff-Minor at 02:13 PM on 04/29/08
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@Evil Tortie's Mom: Yes, that one. Fun story though.
DocGratis at 06:24 PM on 04/29/08
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@Annalee Newitz: Yep.. in fact despite the fact that Data originates from as the plural form of datum, it is now used as a Mass noun (a singular noun that refers to a multitude of items, and uncountable noun (like Sand or Oil)))...

I wonder how effective these thing would be in 'normal' individuals, not that there would ever be such a study.. (but then I am sure people would volunteer )
Dis[Con]cordian at 07:02 PM on 04/29/08
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Come on why bore a hole in yr skull when you can just take a nice little pill?

Brain implants should at least make you smarter, faster, and have a better memory. It's all about enhancement (or replacement.

Mechanists are go!
RAHfanboy at 10:01 PM on 04/29/08
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@Bob_of_Mars: "DATA ARE PLURAL!!!"

The word "data" IS plural, and there's no need to shout. If you're going to nit-pick, at least do it properly.
RAHfanboy at 10:05 PM on 04/29/08
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@Jeff-Minor: Data (the word) IS plural. Datum (the word) is singular. See above post.
corpore-metal at 10:16 PM on 04/29/08
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I agree with Ghede, this stuff needs to be developed to fix people with broken stuff in their skulls that they have no other way to fix.

Having said that, I'm sure some abuse will eventually kick in once these treatments become cheap and portable enough. Larry Niven had a lot of stories about this.

Also there may be some examples where the therapies will be misapplied by tired, overworked doctors looking for quick fixes as written about in the Terminal Man.

Me, generally being happy with my emotional well being, I really see no attraction to gadgets that jazz my pleasure centers.

Now if we start talking about devices or drugs that magnify human intelligence, focus, self-discipline or creativity. It can't get here soon enough!
Jeff-Minor at 05:47 AM on 04/30/08
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@RAHfanboy: I know it is. That's what I was saying.
Klebert L. Hall at 09:53 AM on 04/30/08
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@Annalee Newitz:

Sure, but that's The Queen's English - we fought a war so that we could speak our own American pidgin tongue! (g)

-Kle.
Shinju at 10:59 AM on 04/30/08
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@Ghede: Thankyou, as a guy who suffers from crippling depression, I was beginning to get quite irritated at the general reaction to this article. Just getting up in the morning to get a cup of tea is like a trek up a mountain to me, there is so much misunderstanding about depression (and almost certainly OCD too, although thats not something I have to face so much), its good to know there are people with their eyes open to the problems of others.
Castle1914 at 09:39 AM on 05/01/08
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@Ghede: Sorry I didn't reply earlier. Yes I did read the article.

I understand exactly what you're saying. Now I don't have constant depression, but I do suffer from depression for significant periods of time (weeks to months). So I'm not out of the loop on this.

I suppose I was mostly reacting to the "Or maybe an orgasm implant, instant orgasms to pass the time? I'm just saying." And the fact that everyone it seems is taking Prozac or whatever. There is far too much focus on being happy in at least western countries, I don't know about others.

If your depression or OCD is as bad as you're describing, then this kind of thing is for you and my comment is not.

I for one have found I am at my most creative (but least motivated) when I'm depressed. I've found ways to turn my limited depression into a tool. I think people who aren't debilitated by their depression should learn to do the same. In my opinion, a lot of good literature has come out of people being depressed.

In a way I think that a person who is functionally depressed is as useful as a person who is cheery and happy go lucky.