I'll just expand on Dider's account a bit: there have been many
exploratory/experimental applications, not "useful" in the therapeutic
"practical" sense, but of some theoretical use--originally just
verifying focal effects, e.g. simple motor responses or sensations, but
increasingly aiming at brief interruptions of activity at specific
locations and (more importantly) specific TIMES as a way to trace
spatial/temporal anatomical sequences of cognitive activity.
Don't recall any free-form subjective reports of the experiences, so
don't know if these depended on the specific places LLinas was
sitmulating or simply his interest in and opportunity to introspect and
comment.
F. Frank LeFever, Ph.D.
New York Neuropsychology Group
In <6tb6po$gic$1 at hecate.umd.edu> didier at Glue.umd.edu (Didier A.
Depireux) writes:
>>cpr (bug at cpinternet.com) wrote:
>: In "Phantoms in the Brain", by Dr. Ramachandran he speaks of an
easily made
>: unit for stimulating specific parts of the brain. It is called a
>: transcranial magnetic stimulator.
>It is basically a magnet, but generating a magnetic field many times
what you
>can easily get with a permanent magnet. It's therefore a simple piece
of
>equipment, but it involves very high voltages so don't try this at
home. The
>only real use I have seen made of it was for the treatment of
depression.
>Apparently, if you stimulate some part of frontal or prefrontal cortex
(I
>don't remember which) you _can_ get a temporary release from types of
>depression that a resistant to more conventional forms of treatment.
The only
>person I have met who has used a transcranial stimulator is Llinas,
who tried
>it on various parts of his brain and reported getting strange feelings
from
>it, like unexpected input to the brain. It's like being on drugs for a
short
>while and without the drugs, I guess.
>>I do know that in the early days of MRI, there would occasionally be
power
>outages and the person whose brain was inside the scanner would report
strange
>experiences and feelings.
>> Didier
>>--
>Didier A Depireux didier at isr.umd.edu>Neural Systems Lab http://www.isr.umd.edu/~didier>Institute for Systems Research Phone: 301-405-6557 (off)
>University of Maryland -6596 (lab)
>College Park MD 20742 USA Fax: 1-301-314-9920