This is indeed an often overlooked approach to very effectively alleviate suffering.
Another key research question should be the optimal location of the electrode. The experiments done in rats only stimulated areas that induce intense wanting for the stimulation, the rats probably did not even experience pleasure but rather just craving for the stimulation.
Pleasure/joy itself is encoded in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, so this area might be worth looking into.
Electrode contacts where a pleasant sensation could be evoked were mostly located in the anterior insula (AI, a total of six stimulation, right AI: n=3, left AI: n=3) and in the amygdala (five stimulation; right amygdala: n=4, left amygdala: n=1) […]. Overall, most EBS that evoked pleasant sensations were applied to the right cerebral hemisphere (n=9) whereas only four were applied to the left hemisphere. In two patients, (P( and P8), the same sensation could be elicited from two different brain structures, i.e., a feeling of well-being by EBS in the right temporal pole and the amygdala (P4) and a positive emotion and well-being by EBS in the AI and the amygdala (P8).
I do think direct electrical stimulation is probably not optimal, and would rather we expand rTMS and modulated ultrasound approaches to Brian stimulation before we go full invasive. (This is more directed at Dave92F1.)
This is indeed an often overlooked approach to very effectively alleviate suffering.
Another key research question should be the optimal location of the electrode. The experiments done in rats only stimulated areas that induce intense wanting for the stimulation, the rats probably did not even experience pleasure but rather just craving for the stimulation.
Pleasure/joy itself is encoded in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, so this area might be worth looking into.
I could also imagine multiple electrodes stimulating all hedonic hotspots in the brain, e.g. in the nucleus accumbens, insula, ventral pallidum, orbitofrontal cortex. More on this here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1705753114
Electrode stimulation of the insula cortex has already been shown to produce bliss in humans, so this location might also be a good approach:
“Insular Stimulation Produces Mental Clarity and Bliss”: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9300149/
Thanks for the references. See also Villard et al. 2022:
And some more rough notes on the topic here.
I do think direct electrical stimulation is probably not optimal, and would rather we expand rTMS and modulated ultrasound approaches to Brian stimulation before we go full invasive. (This is more directed at Dave92F1.)