Can you tell I’m a robot?

[Randy W]

“Can you tell I’m a robot?” Wu Xiaotian asks his taxi driver as he’s heading home to his apartment one day. “It’s true. I have a chip in my head that lets me control my emotions.”

Wu’s experience will sound to some like science fiction. On the right side of his chest, just under the skin, is a device known as a “brain pacemaker,” which sends tiny electrical pulses to electrodes implanted in his head. With just the press of a button, his mood can switch in a moment from despair to delight.

After struggling with severe and debilitating depression for more than a decade, Wu underwent the operation to fit the device last year in a last-ditch effort to save his life.

Sun Bomin, head of functional neurosurgery at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital, carried out Wu’s procedure as part of his clinical research into a brain-computer interface for treatment-resistant depression. The smart technology works by looking for patterns in brain activity linked to depression and then automatically interrupts them by stimulating target points in the nucleus accumbens, an area deep inside the brain known for its role in feelings of pleasure and reward.

Using the technology, researchers believe they can reliably create “mood settings” that patients can apply depending on their state of mind, allowing them to alleviate their symptoms almost immediately.

Since receiving the implant surgery, Wu has mostly relied on two settings for his device, which he controls with an app on his phone. He activates “work mode” in the morning, which “powers him up,” giving him a renewed interest in the things around him, and he uses “rest mode” before going to bed, when he begins to feel low and loses his desire to communicate.

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How a ‘Brain Pacemaker’ Can Help Treat Depression
After 16 years of battling “demons,” one patient says he has been given a second chance at life by a brain-computer interface developed in Shanghai.

Quote

 

After struggling with severe and debilitating depression for more than a decade, Wu underwent the operation to fit the device last year in a last-ditch effort to save his life.

Sun Bomin, head of functional neurosurgery at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital, carried out Wu’s procedure as part of his clinical research into a brain-computer interface for treatment-resistant depression. The smart technology works by looking for patterns in brain activity linked to depression and then automatically interrupts them by stimulating target points in the nucleus accumbens, an area deep inside the brain known for its role in feelings of pleasure and reward.

Using the technology, researchers believe they can reliably create “mood settings” that patients can apply depending on their state of mind, allowing them to alleviate their symptoms almost immediately.

Since receiving the implant surgery, Wu has mostly relied on two settings for his device, which he controls with an app on his phone. He activates “work mode” in the morning, which “powers him up,” giving him a renewed interest in the things around him, and he uses “rest mode” before going to bed, when he begins to feel low and loses his desire to communicate.

 . . .

Before receiving the surgery, Wu underwent extensive physical and psychological testing, the results of which showed that he had severe depression. The doctors warned him about the potential risks of the procedure, including paralysis, being left in a vegetative state, and even death. Wu listened calmly but didn’t show a trace of fear, according to the doctors.

Wu is among 29 patients who have received the surgery as part of the clinical trial, in which Sun leads a team of more than 10 researchers responsible for data analysis, imaging, and clinical evaluation. It was initiated by the hospital’s Brain-Computer Interface and Neuromodulation Center.

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)