What are the long term consequences of manipulating your emotions with a deep brain simulator?

1. Sorry Sally Feels Sad
By Farris Ismati

2. One day Sorry Sally was playing golf with her friends.
She seemed happy but actually she felt…

3. Sad.

4. Sorry Sally’s Sadness came from an emotion created in her brain.
Emotions are created from responses to things that happen in the
outside world. Our brain learns about these responses from our touch,
taste, smell, sight, and hearing senses. For Sally she has been feeling sad
for a long time which means parts of her brain are having a hard time
regulating her mood.

5. The brain is made up of many different parts, but the section that
regulates emotion is called the limbic system. These parts of the brain
communicate through a series of pathways called neurons.

6. These neurons are the circuitry within the brain that communicate from
one part of the brain to another called synapses. Synapses are the
passing of electrical or chemical signals from one neuron to another.

7. The combination of neural signals sending and receiving
electrical/chemical signals from one another is a very complex system.
When this complex system goes wrong it may begin to allow people to
change their mood in negative ways like the way Sorry Sally feels sad.

8. Because Sally has felt sad for so long she decided to go get help. Her
doctor prescribed her medicine but it didn’t work for very long. Sally has
tried many other options to help her brain work better again but
nothing seems to work. So her doctor finally recommended Deep Brain
Simulation.

9. Deep Brain Simulation is a surgical procedure that implants electrodes
into certain areas of the brain which produces electrical impulses.
These electrical impulses are targeted to certain parts of the brain to
help regulate her brain function and the synapses that occur. One of the
targeted areas is called area 25, a known convergence zone in the brain
for the various regions that mediate negative mood and depression.

10. When Sally gets her surgery the doctor implants a pacemaker like device
or battery in her upper chest and attaches electrical nodes from the
battery to certain areas deep within the brain. The electrical nodes
targets areas of the brain that aren’t functioning properly.
Sorry Sally is done with treatment and now Sorry Sally isn’t feeling so
sorry or sad anymore. Her mood has improved and everything is looking
better now.

11. When Sally gets her surgery the doctor implants a pacemaker like device
or battery in her upper chest and attaches electrical nodes from the
battery to certain areas deep within the brain. The electrical nodes
targets areas of the brain that aren’t functioning properly.
is
A few years pass by and Sorry Sally thinks she has become Super Sally. The
science behind the Deep Brain Simulator isn’t entirely known yet as it’s a
relatively new technology but some clinical trials have shown improvement in
some patients. The Deep Brain Simulator curing depression is thought to either
turn off an abnormal signal being sent from Area 25 or that a normal signal is
being sent but not being received, and Deep Brain Simulation helps send that
signal. All that matters to Sally is that she feels better.

12. The End
Note Deep Brain Simulation is FDA approved for treating Parkinson's Disease however it’s only in
it’s initial test stages of treating depression

13. Works Cited
• http://www.dbs4pd.org/UserFiles/File/PAResearchStud
y8(1).pdf
• http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/test_pr
ocedures/neurological/deep_brain_stimulation_135,38
/
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH002
9058/
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/11080
8161132.htm
• http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/health/battery-
powered-brain/
• http://www.dana.org/News/Details.aspx?id=43521