Historical Development of Brain Stimulation with Unusual Experiments
Some bizarre experiments on brain stimulation from the past to the present
The brain and its structure are the most important part of the body, which continues to be kept secret today and researches are carried out to gain more information. Although many systems of the body are cured with today’s technology, the human brain still has a huge mystery even though the brain is 2% of the body weight, receives 15% of Cardiac Output, 20% of total body oxygen consumption, and utilize 25% of total body glucose.
Fishes
One of the oldest brain stimulation devices was fish. The electrical shock power of the Nile catfish and electric ray fish of the Ancient Greeks and Romans was known. Galen and Scribonius Largus in Rome electric rays used to fish in the treatment of headaches and various diseases. For the treatment of headache, the fish was placed on the patient’s eyebrow, the fish, which perceived this as a danger, made electrical attacks due to its nature, in this way the headaches of the patients were treated. In another method, fish and people were put in the same environment
As can be reached from Wikipedia, Nile catfish could produce electricity up to 350 Volts. Electric rail could generate electricity ranging from 8V to 220V to stun prey or defend itself.
Macabre Research
Until the early 18th century, scientists still did not know what substance flows from nerves. Estimates were spirit, special fluids. Luigi Galvani, one of these scientists, noticed that in the last quarter of the 18th century, there was twitching on a dead frog’s leg which was stimulated with electric current. He thought that he could raise the dead by applying electricity to a dead body.
After completing his education, Luigi Galvani’s nephew Giovanni Aldini continued to work in the footsteps of his uncle. Aldini, who started working on frogs, later applied similar studies on larger animals such as sheep, pigs, cows. His work was successful: stimulated with electrically dead animal bodies shake their heads, their pupils were twitching, their tongues were sticking out. Aldini, who wanted to take his work further, decided to study it on humans and participated in the execution ceremony with the guillotine. When he applied the electrical stimulation to the dead human body, nothing happened because the blood of the decapitated corpses was drawn. Unable to complete this work as he wanted, Aldini went to England to apply to the corpses in England, where gallows were still applied. As a result, chin, eyebrow, and eye movements were observed on a dead body stimulated with the electric current.
Temporal Lobe
Penfield explored the human brain in live epilepsy patients as part of the surgical excision of the epileptic focus of the seizures. He aimed to locate the focus of the seizure activity by applying local anesthesia to the patient and keeping him awake. After detecting this tissue, he took the damaged tissue without damaging the other tissues. After this study, he thought that the patient who was administered local anesthesia could give weak electrical activity to the cortex with probe and he would receive behavioral feedback and observe since the patient was awake. When the electrical activity was applied to different parts of the brain (occipital cortex, motor cortex, Broca’s area, etc), the results(light vision, twitching) were predictable, but unexpected results were obtained when electrical stimulation was applied to the temporal lobes. Some patients whose temporal lobe was stimulated said that they remembered memories from their childhood, while others stated that they heard the song they had not heard for years.
Reward — Punishment
James Olds and Peter Milner were studying the reticulation of the brain and the learning mechanism in rats. One of the electrodes was accidentally bent during replacement in the brain of a rat. Interestingly, the mouse whose stimulation was cut off due to the bent electrode was looking for more stimulation. In the experimental setup, hungry rats self-stimulate before eating available food. At this point, Olds and Milner discovered the reward part of the brain or pleasure centers.
The experiment can be watched on YouTube searching “olds and milner rat experiment”
Emotional pacemaker
In the 1950s, Robert Heath was working on the implanted electrode for psychiatric disorders but failed to produce fruitful results. Heath believed that anhedonia is the main problem underlying many psychiatric diseases. From the pleasure center discovery of Olds and Milner described above, Heath thought that stimulation deep cortical structures associated with pleasure would be a potential treatment for depression, schizophrenia, etc. He hoped that stimulation of the pleasure center would reawaken the neural pathways and so that, mood, energy, happiness would come back. The results were negative in the long term. Positive results are obtained while stimulating, but when it was turned off, the effect diminished quickly.
Anhedonia: the inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable, e.g. exercise, hobbies, music, sexual activities, or social interactions.
Brain Chip — Stimoreceivers –
Professor Jose Delgado at Yale University took the implanting electrodes studies a step further. The radio-equipped electrode of 50 cent size was placed in the brains of cats, monkeys, apes, and even humans then remotely stimulated. A Significant point in the study was remotely brain stimulation was used to inhibit aggressive behavior. Delgado entered the ring where the bull was ready to attack. Predictably, these stimoreceivers were implanted in the bull’s brain. As the bull was released and charged towards Delgado, he pressed the button and the bull stops just a few feet in front of him.
Sexual Orientation
After the discovery of pleasurable stimulation, Heath conducted experiments that were not favorable reception by the medical community. He thought that he could prevent phobic situations by stimulating pleasurable stimulation. He also wondered whether there was an alter sexual orientation by stimulating this area and followed his curiosity. He carried out this unwelcome experimental work in 1972. An electrode implanted in the brain of a homosexual male patient with a long-term history of depression and substance abuse. Heath then recruited a New Orleans prostitute to engage the patient in heterosexual intercourse while the patient simultaneously received pleasurable brain stimulation. Although the patient enjoyed the heterosexual activity, it was unclear whether there is a reduction in long-term psychiatric disorders or sexual orientation. This study, which caused ethical debates in the medical community, has not been studied much.
Resources
- Penfield W, Gage L. Cerebral localization of epileptic manifestations Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. 30: 709–727. DOI: 10.1001/archneurpsyc.1933.02240160009001
- Olds, J., & Milner, P. (1954). Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 47(6), 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0058775
- HEALTH, ROBERT G. M.D., D.M.Sci.1 MODULATION OF EMOTION WITH A BRAIN PACEMAKER TREATMENT FOR INTRACTABLE PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease: November 1977 — Volume 165 — Issue 5 — p 300–317
- Delgado, José M.R. (1964). Free Behavior and Brain Stimulation. International Review of Neurobiology. 6. pp. 349–449. doi:10.1016/S0074–7742(08)60773–4.
- Charles E. Moan, Robert G. Heath, Septal stimulation for the initiation of heterosexual behavior in a homosexual male, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, Volume 3, Issue 1, 1972, Pages 23–30, ISSN 0005–7916
