Author: Nancy Shute / Source: Science News
For centuries, scientists have strived to figure out the workings of the human brain, but that blob of matter tucked inside a bony shell long resisted efforts to divine its secrets.
Techniques invented in the early 1900s, including angiography and electroencephalography, made it possible to examine some characteristics of the brain without invading the skull.
But it wasn’t until the 1970s, with the development of functional PET and MRI scanning, that it became possible to see the brain in action.Two stories in this issue illuminate just how far we’ve come in being able to explore and influence the brain in this extraordinary era of neuroscience innovation. “Brain-zapping implants that fight depression are inching closer to reality,” by neuroscience writer Laura Sanders, examines efforts to treat depression with electrical stimulation. Rather than deliver a whole-brain zap, which is used in electroconvulsive therapy for severe depression, these experiments are testing whether nudging parts of the brain with electrodes could work better than current treatments.
“It’s one of those things that sounds a little bit like science fiction, but they’re actually doing it,” Sanders told me. “What if we could have this really precise, gentler, kinder approach that worked?”
A second story by Sanders…
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