MIT neuroscientists have shown they can influence people’s moral judgments by disrupting a specific brain region - a finding that helps reveal how the brain constructs morality. To make moral judgments about other people, we often need to infer their intentions - an ability known as “theory of mind.” For example, if a hunter shoots his friend while on a hunting trip, we need to know what the hunter was thin ...

Psychosurgery is making a comeback. Recently published case series have shown encouraging results of so-called deep brain stimulation (DBS) in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressive disorders, and Tourette syndrome. In the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, authors Jens Kuhn (University of Cologne) and Theo P J Gründer (Max Planck Institute, Cologne) and their co-aut ...

Even with the best of available treatments, over a third of patients with depression may not achieve a satisfactory antidepressant response. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a form of targeted electrical stimulation in the brain via implanted electrodes, is now undergoing careful testing to determine whether it could play a role in the treatment of patients who have not sufficiently improved during more tradit ...

Neurosurgeons from University Hospital Heidelberg performed the world's first operation on the 'habenula' to treat depression with cooperation from psychiatrists at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim. The team of neurosurgeons and psychiatrists have for the first time successfully treated a patient suffering from severe depression by stimulating the habenula, a tiny nerve structure in the br ...

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Eric Newhouse illuminates the dire circumstances that veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently encounter in his book, "Faces of Combat, PTSD and TBI: One Journalist's Crusade to Improve Treatment for Our Veterans." ...

Brain stimulation therapies have received increased attention as of late. These treatments involve activating or touching the brain directly with electricity, magnets, or implants to treat depression and other disorders. One type of brain stimulation, Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), was previously detailed in "What is CES?" Part 1 and Part 2. BMED Report even created an "Electromedicine" category ...

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is an acute medical condition that results from a significant impact to the human skull. Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) occurs when mTBI symptoms, such as dysphoria, anxiety, and chronic pain continue for an extended period. There is much debate over the causes of PCS with physical attributions (i.e., physiological/neurological changes) on one side of the continuum and pur ...

In Part 1 of this series, a basic introduction to Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), also known as Cranial Electrical Stimulation and Cranial Electrostimulation, was given that included a technical overview, typical treatment protocols, and common side effects. Next, Part 2 details CES' proposed mechanism of action and treatment effectiveness with depression, anxiety, insomnia, and chronic pain, as w ...

Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), also known as Cranial Electrical Stimulation and Cranial Electrostimulation, falls under the branch of alternative medicine called Electromedicine, which treats physical and psychological conditions with varying levels of electrical current (Kirsch, 2006). CES is the application of a very low level alternating electrical current generated from a 9-volt battery to th ...