5 ms·
Deep brain stimulation of the internal capsule enhances human cognitive control
- tsumnia 8y ago"Focused electrical/magnetic brain stimulation has been proposed as a better approach to the mental health epidemic..." As this was my first thought and I'm not knowledgeable in neuroscience at all, how has this method evolved from the older "electroshock therapy" method?
- neural_thing 8y agoPrecision. Compare a single missile from a drone to carpet bombing a city. Similar effectiveness in the mission, fewer side effects.
- TomMarius 8y agoWhat about reliability, backup?
- aznpwnzor 8y agothere was nothing inherently wrong with the older "electroshock therapy." in fact it worked quite often than you'd think. but obviously this we have more precise targeting and result metrics now. Also electroshock therapy ran at much higher currents, while current (hehe) thought is that milliamps as low as 2 over the scalp is enough for therapeutic effects. tho ofc there are those that disagree that 2 mA is enough to penetrate the skull.
- stochastic_monk 8y agoECT, electroconvulsive therapy, actually is tremendously effective for refractory depression. I’ve known several individuals for whom it made all the difference. It comes with massive memory loss; this leads me to think that the antidepressant effects of NMDA antagonists, cannabis, and ECT are all mediated by memory modulation. To the point, it would be amazing if these benefits could be realized without nuking the brain.
- meowface 8y agoI have no doubt ECT is very beneficial for many people with refractory depression, but I suspect the memory loss may be correlation and not causation. I think the memory loss might be unnecessary collateral damage, perhaps due to a lack of precision, and future ECT advances may reduce the memory loss while retaining the antidepressant effects. I'm also not aware of any research indicating that the antidepressant effects of cannabis or NMDA antagonists like ketamine are connected to memory. But I'm definitely no expert in either field.
- zarkov99 8y agoWhile any kind of therapeutic relief for mental health problems is of course great news, the reasons behind the mental health epidemic seem to me much more environmental: lack of meaning, lack of opportunity, lack of community. Maybe we can change our brains to not need these things so much, but it might be better to get to the root of the problem.
- cheeko1234 8y agoI think the loss of religion is partly to blame for that. How does one compensate for that?
- dr_dshiv 8y agoDesign new religions. How hard could it be, if it wasn't taboo?
- dragonwriter 8y agoDesigning them is easy, getting hem broadly socially accepted is harder.
- zarkov99 8y agoReligion did provide that, but not without its pathologies. It should be possible to get the positives without buying in to the whole thing.
- jjeaff 8y agoGet some religion perhaps? There are so many variants that one would have to be awefully close minded to lot be able to find one they can relate to. You don't have to be an all in orthodox believer to participate in a faith based group.
- 0xcde4c3db 8y ago> You don't have to be an all in orthodox believer to participate in a faith based group. No, but it's tough to find one that doesn't require either believing in supernatural entities or lying about that belief in order to remain welcome, and I can't convince myself to do either of those things.