electronic brain stimulation

[Corey Cleland]

>Students at my high school need information about electronic brain
>stimulation... is it a frequent course of therapy for any diseases,
>what is done to the patient, what are the results, where can we find
>other information about it.

>TIA

returning now to the original question...

Marge - electrical stimulation of the "brain" is done for many different 
reasons:

the two mentioned

1) Experimental/clinical mapping of which ares of the cortex do what. Follow 
up on Penfield (Penfeld?sp?) in any Neuroscience book
2) ECT - psychiatric treatment


plus...

3) Prosthesis - experimental mostly; eg, in someone blind, stimulate the 
portions of visual cerebral cortex in a pattern similar to what the normal 
activity in the cortex would have been without blindness (due, eg, damage to 
thalamus or optic tract). Similarly, cochlear prosthesis (hearing, 
stimulating the inner earis becoming more common
4) Pain relief - by stimulating endogenous, 
possibly opioid, systems in the spinal cord (dorsal columns) and brain.

check basic neuro textbooks, search "neural prosthesis" for 3 perhaps


corey