Sticking Wires into the Brain is not new

December 17, 2024 by Doctor Vernon Coleman

It was revealed this week that Elon Musk is behind a plan to connect wires into the human brain and send messages to a receiver. The following essay is taken from my book `Paper Doctors’ which was first published in 1977 but which is now available again as a paperback.

Wiring the Brain

Electronic stimulation of the brain depends upon the mapping out of the brain and the identification of the sites within it where various categories of thought and emotion originate. To that extent electronic stimulation of the brain involves the same basic research as psychosurgery. There, however, the similarity ends. Instead of simply destroying part of the brain as the neurosurgeon does when performing psychosurgery, the researcher experimenting with electronic stimulation limits himself to trying to control parts of the brain.

For over a century doctors have known that if wires are poked into the brain and an electric charge passed through them, there will be different responses from different parts of the brain. A wire poked into one part will cause a leg to move, the same wire poked into another part of the brain will give the patient an erection. Today we know that with the aid of electronic stimulation, doctors can induce pleasure, eradicate pain and recall memories previously lost.

In order to put electrodes into the human brain a number of procedures must first be carried out. First, special X-rays are taken, using air (injected into the spaces inside the brain) to enable the doctors to get a real view of the brain's actual shape. Eventually the researchers can tell where to put their electrodes.

Next, small holes are drilled in the skull and hair-thin electrodes are sunk into the brain to the depth the experimenting surgeon desires. The brain has no sense of pain and so the actual insertion of the electrodes into the brain is painless. When the electrodes have been put into position, the exposed ends are fitted with terminals which are fixed to the scalp. To stimulate the brain small amounts of electrical current are passed along the electrodes. Doctors have now developed their techniques to such an extent that they fit small receivers onto the scalp so that electrical impulses can be fired into the brain from afar. The receivers fit under wigs or hats and are supplied with long-lasting batteries. Eventually, no doubt, receivers will be designed which can be fitted under the scalp.

With the electrodes in position the patient can be controlled quite effectively from a distance. He can be made to eat, to sleep or to work. His appetite, heart rate, body temperature and other factors can also be controlled. The system has great possibilities for helping obese patients to slim. It has also been said that it can be used to help the blind to see. Many wired-up patients have proved to have 'pleasure centres' which can be stimulated quite easily. Researchers have noted that patients stimulated in their right places suddenly start talking about sex or acting in a sexually flirtatious manner.

One doctor has predicted that in a not too distant future patients requiring anaesthesia will be taken to the operating theatre fully conscious and put to sleep with the aid of a current sent down an electrode into the brain. Another doctor has reported that he already has epileptic patients who are fitted with electrodes and transmitters of their own. When these patients feel a fit starting they simply press a button and abort the fit.

Researchers have shown that gentle cats can be transformed into aggressive beasts if certain parts of their brains are stimulated. In the 1950s Dr Delgado of the Yale University School of Medicine showed that two cats, normally quite friendly, could be made to fight fiercely if electrodes implanted in the brain were given impulses. Even when it continually lost its fights, the smaller of the two cats continued to be aggressive when stimulated. In one dramatic experiment Dr Delgado wired a bull with electrodes and then planted himself in the middle of a bullring with a cape and a small radio transmitter. The bull charged but was stopped by Dr Delgado pressing a button on his transmitter. The bull screeched to a halt inches away from its target. Dr Delgado has reported that 'Animals with implanted electrodes in their brains have been made to perform a variety of responses with predictable reliability as if they were electronic toys under human control.'

Similar experiments have been performed with human beings. The patients selected had all proved dangerous and had shown that they had uncontrollable tempers. By electronic stimulation every patient was controlled. More detailed accounts of these experiments can be read in Physical Control of the Mindby J.M.R. Delgado.

Taken from `Paper Doctors’, first published in 1977 and now available again via the bookshop on www.vernoncoleman.com

Copyright Vernon Coleman 1977 2024