dbs seems to come with all sorts of
surprises...fascinating...although not so much if u r the
patient...uncharted territory...a little scary.  carole
--- rayilynlee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Deep Brain Stimulation In Hypothalamus Triggers Déjà Vu
> In Patient
> ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2008) - Deep brain stimulation
> (DBS) surgery, which
> is used to treat Parkinson's disease and other movement
> disorders, is now
> being studied for its potential to treat a variety of
> conditions. A new
> study found that hypothalamic DBS performed in the
> treatment of a patient
> with morbid obesity unexpectedly evoked a sense of déjà
> vu and detailed
> personal memories.
> Led by Andres Lozano, Professor of Neurosurgery and
> Canada Research Chair in
> Neuroscience and his team at the Toronto Western Hospital
> in Toronto,
> Ontario, researchers conducted an experimental study to
> treat a 50-year-old
> man with a lifelong history of obesity in whom a variety
> of treatment
> approaches had failed. While they were identifying
> potential appetite
> suppressant sites in the hypothalamus by stimulating
> electrode contacts that
> had been implanted there, the patient suddenly
> experienced a feeling of
> "déjà vu."
> He reported the perception of being in a park with
> friends from when he was
> around 20 years old and as the intensity of the
> stimulation was increased,
> the details became more vivid. These sensations were
> reproduced when the
> stimulation was performed in a double-blinded manner. The
> contacts that most
> readily induced the memories were located in the
> hypothalamus and estimated
> to be close to the fornix, an arched bundle of fibers
> that carries signals
> within the limbic system, which is involved in memory and
> emotions.
> Stimulation was shown to drive the activity the temporal
> lobe and the
> hippocampus, important components of the brain's memory
> circuit.
> At the first office visit two months after the patient
> was released from the
> hospital, the researchers were able to induce and
> videotape the memory
> effects seen in the operating room by turning on the
> electrical stimulation.
> They also tested the patient's memory during and without
> stimulation and
> found that after three weeks of continuous hypothalamic
> stimulation he
> showed significant improvements in two learning tests. In
> addition, the
> patient was much more likely to remember unrelated paired
> objects when
> stimulation was on than when it was off. They conclude
> that "just as DBS can
> influence motor and limbic circuits, it may be possible
> to apply electrical
> stimulation to modulate memory function and, in so doing,
> gain a better
> understanding of the neural substrates of memory."
> DBS of the hypothalamus has also been used to treat
> cluster headaches and
> aggressiveness in humans, and stimulating this area
> influences feeding
> behavior in animals.
> Journal article: "Memory Enhancement Induced by
> Hypothalamic/Fornix Deep
> Brain Stimulation," Clement Hamani, Mary Pat McAndrews,
> Melanie Cohn,
> Michael Oh, Dominik Zumsteg, Colin M. Shapiro, Richard A.
> Wennberg, Andres
> M. Lozano, Annals of Neurology, January 2008.
> Adapted from materials provided by Wiley-Blackwell, via
> EurekAlert!, a
> service of AAAS.
>
> Rayilyn Brown
> Board Member AZNPF
> Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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