Introduction to Brain Stimulation

Devices and technologies that deliver brain stimulation have emerged as both tools to probe brain function and as therapeutic options for patients with neuropsychiatric disease who fail to respond or cannot tolerate medications and other therapies. Key to understanding how brain stimulating technologies work is an understanding of brain circuitry that mediates normal and abnormal brain function. This book focuses on neuronal circuits subserving the motor and limbic systems and the activity dependent changes in neuronal function triggered by brain stimulation. It also focuses on the brain stimulation technologies themselves that can be categorized as either noninvasive or invasive. A major goal of brain stimulating devices is to focally stimulate neural circuits leaving nearby brain regions unaffected. The common mechanism underlying convulsive and nonconvulsive therapies is an electric field that triggers either a seizure or nonconvulsive neuromodulation that results in a long-lasting alteration in connectivity.