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iPlant
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Rewarding brain stimulation Rewarding brain stimulation (often called brain stimulation reward, or intracranial self-stimulation in the scientific litterature) refers to electrical stimulation of the reward system in the brain. Targets for stimulation include the dopamine cell bodies in the midbrain, their axons as they project to the forebrain along the medial forebrain bundle, and/or their target areas in the ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex. A particularly effective wireless implant for rats uses four electrodes to stimulate dopamine cell bodies and the medial forebrain bundles on both sides of the brain (Xu et al 2004). Electrical stimulation of the reward system raises dopamine concentrations in the brain sharply, particularly in the striatum and frontal cortex (Garris et al 1997, Fiorino et al 1993, Bean & Roth 1991) and can be extremely rewarding to animals. Sharp increases in dopamine concentrations is the brain's natural way of signalling importance and reward (see monoamines), so animals work very very hard to receive rewarding brain stimulation. For example, if rats are given the opportunity to deliver a pulse of rewarding brain stimulation to their own brains by pressing a lever (see image), they will ignore all other temptations, including food and water, and will press the lever untill they faint. Rewarding brain stimulation can therefore be used to motivate animals to perform very difficult behaviours. Reserchers have shown that rats will run on treadmills, lift wheights and solve problems to recieve rewarding brain stimulation, and will perform better than rats recieving natural rewards (Burgess et al 1991, Garner et al 1991, Hermer-Vasquez et al 2005). We refer to this as conditional rewarding brain stimulation. It is by conditional rewarding brain stimulation that iPlants could motivate difficult behaviours in humans (see iPlant programming).  iPlant 101, What is rewarding brain
stimulation?, Rat
motivated to exercise through conditional rewarding brain stimulation,
Precise control of rat
locomotion through rewarding brain stimulationRewarding brain stimulation in the human brain The human reward system is sometimes stimulated electrically. For instance, Robert Heath used rewarding brain stimulation in his attempts to treat a variety of psychiatric conditions in the 1960s and 1970s (Heath, 1963; Heath 1972). When given the opportunity to self-stimulate one patient "stimulated himself to a point that, both behaviourally and introspectively, he was experiencing an almost overwhelming euphoria and elation and had to be disconnected, despite his vigorous protests." (Heath, 1972). Today surgeons apply deep brain stimulation to the reward system to treat psychiatric conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder (Greenberg et al 2008) and depression (Schlaepfer et al 2008, Malone et al 2009, Bewernick et al in press). However, these treatments are 'merely' aimed to normalize activity in the reward system and thus involve a constant, weak, high-freuqency current that does not have the strong rewarding impact of the brief, strong, low-frequency current used in the animal experiments described above. So, although rewarding brain stimulation in the human brain is possible with today's implant technology and surgical procedures, it is not being used. The iPlant programming section describes how conditional rewarding brain stimulation could be used to help people perform difficult behaviours like heavy physical exercise and learning. |
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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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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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