A pacemaker for the brain healed a man from depression

A sick man of depression for thirty years has gone to remission from a serious form of the disorder thanks to a device for the electrical stimulation of the brain comparable to a pacemaker, who succeeded where the drugs had failed. The plant, which selectively activates some brain areas and which has been specially calibrated on the patient’s brain, has returned peace and mental clarity to the man and will soon be tested in a controlled study on several people. The clinical case reported in an article on New Scientist has been described on Psyarxiv.

The 44 -year -old man, afflicted by major depression (a debilitating form of depressive disorder) from the age of 13, had tried about twenty treatments during life between antidepressant drugs, psychotherapy and electroconvulsant (electroshock) – i.e. electrical stimulation of the brain under general anesthesia and with ultrabrew impulses, used effectively in psychiatry against serious forms and serious forms and resistant of depression.

However, no treatment had given lasting results; During his tormented existence, the man had attempted suicide three times.

A group of neuroscientists from the University of Minnesota, in the United States, has developed an electrical brain stimulation approach for the patient. The man was subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, a technique of generation of images of the interior of the human body) for 40 minutes, so as to map the boundaries of four networks of brain activities that have been connected to depression in the past.

This has made it possible to observe that, in the patient’s brain, the Salienza network, the brain circuit that allows you to distinguish internal stimuli from external ones and to correctly focus attention, was four times more extended than how they appear in those who have no depression.

With this map in hand, the scientists have implanted four groups of electrodes along the boundaries of the observed brain networks, passing through two small holes practiced in the patient’s cranial box. Three days after the intervention, they provided weak electrical impulses to the electrodes, stimulating each of the four brain circuits separately. The stimulation of the default mode network, implicated in introspection and reflections on the self, has caused man a feeling of almost euphoric joy, forgotten for three decades.

Stimulating the network of salience and another network, the network in action mode (action-modern network), involved in planning actions, has returned the patient a sense of calm; Doing the same with the Frontopariental Network, involved in decision -making processes, gave man a newfound concentration.

Once the benefits have been ascertained, the scientists have built a small system to allow the electrical stimulation of the four areas of the brain even at home. They attacked the wires of the electrodes with two small batteries implanted under the patient’s clavicle, thus preparing a sort of pacemaker for the brain. The device stimulates the various areas for a minute, every 5 minutes and is connected to an app that allows the patient to vary between multiple stimulation modes developed by the team.

In the six months following discharge, thanks to the data collected and a diary on the symptoms of the depression compiled by the patient, the researchers have optimized the stimulation methods so as to make the benefits for the patient maximum. Already 7 weeks after the operation, man no longer had suicidal thoughts, and 9 months from the intervention his depression could be considered in remission according to a common diagnostic scale.

The case of man represents a demonstration of the potential of a personalized approach of electrostimulation of the brain, which requires little time in hospital and limited computational resources compared to previous attempts. Before, however, that cerebral pacemaker can be considered a “care”, albeit only for patients with depression resistant to other possible treatments, it will be necessary to validate it in a scientific study controlled on brains with different characteristics, and in which some patients are treated with a placebo.