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iPlant
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Deep brain stimulation Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a surgical procedure in which small wires are inserted into the brain of an awake patient. The tip of each wire contains several electrodes that are used to modulate electrical activity in dysfunctional brain regions. The operation currently takes 8-12 hours and requires a team including a neurosurgeon, an electrophysiologist and neurologist. Risks with the procedure include haemorrhage, infection, reactive tissue response and neurological problems due to electrode misalignment or damage to surrounding tissue (1-3% of operations result in serious complications). DBS is standard treatment for refractory Parkinson's disease, tremor and dystonia, and is occasionally used treat of cluster headaches, epilepsy, obsessive compulsive disorders and depression. The cost of the procedure is ~30.000 (not counting the cost of regular follow-ups). With over 40.000 patients since 1997, Medtronic's Activa system, depicted below, is the most widely used DBS implant. St Jude Medical is another major distributor of DBS technology.  DBS to the reward circuit turns out to be an extremely effective treatment for various psychiatric conditions: in February of 2009 Medtronic received FDA approval to use the procedure to treat obsessive compulsive disorder, and clinical trials for depression, potentially a much larger patient group, are well under way (read the press release here). A good review of DBS to the reward system to treat obsessive compulsive disoerder is Greenberg et al 2008. Studies applying DBS to the reward system to treat depression include Schlaepfer et al 2008, Malone et al 2009 and Bewernick et al (in press). DBS implants work by injecting rapidly alternating positive and negative electrical current into the local environment of neurons, thereby modulating their electrical communication. The speed of the alternation (the frequency) and the size and strenght of the current (the pulse width and voltage) determine the effect of the implant. High frequency current tends to inactivate or normalize brain tissue and is used when doctors want to disrupt a region of the brain that isn't working the way it should, like the global pallidus or subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease. Lower frequency current with higher voltages are used when doctors want to boost activity in a certain region, like the reward system in depression and other psychiatric disorders. Rewarding brain stimulation involves applying a very low frequency, high voltage current to the reward system, and is not currently used with DBS in human patients. This site hopes to change that, because conditional rewarding brain stimulation could be extremely helpful to a lot of people. 
At the
International Neuromodulation Conference in Seoul,
What we need to accelerate biomedical research and fight aging,
Using Medtronic's Reclaim implant to generate artificial motivation
iPlant talk for the
2009 International Neuromodulation Conference,
iPlant 101,
Deep brain
stimulation for depression |
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At the International Neuromodulation Conference in Seoul
(September 2009) Does secularism fuck you up? (pt.2, pt.3) (June 2009) What we need to accelerate biomedical research and fight aging (May 2009) I can has freedom and dignity? (April 2009) Using Medtronic's Reclaim implant to generate artificial motivation (March 2009) Wired-article-induced neuroscience rant (March 2009) Riding a bike (December 2008) How compliant do we want our children to be? (December 2008) Thoughts on forks (December 2008) Aging (November 2008) Brainbeat (October 2008) |
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What the blogs say |
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The iPlant: Making life easier for the lazy?
(June 2009)
Enogamez iPlant (June 2009) Something Awesome iPlant Brain Implant Advocated for Self-Improvement (June 2009) Technovelgy iPlant - the motivational implant (June 2009) Futurismic A prosthetic motivational system (April 2009) Emerging Ideas Self-determination for the 21st century (April 2009) psique The iPlant (May 2008) Brain Stimulant |
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