Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Government Wants To Help Veterans With PTSD -- By Putting Chips In Their Brains

     Massachussetts, still and always the cradle and grave of freedom!

     Who doesn't support stuffing circuitry inside people's skulls to ensure they only think Goodthink?  MIT's got a grant to dust off the 40-year-old research (PDF) and get it running.  From the horse's, er, whatever:
     Darin Dougherty, a psychiatrist who directs Mass General’s division of neurotherapeutics, says one aim could be to extinguish fear in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Fear is generated in the amygdala—a part of the brain involved in emotional memories. But it can be repressed by signals in another region, the ventromedial pre-frontal cortex. “The idea would be to decode a signal in the amygdala showing overactivity, then stimulate elsewhere to [suppress] that fear,” says Dougherty.
     Where's that line to sign up?

     Also, consider,  “The idea would be to decode a signal in the amygdala showing overactivity, then stimulate elsewhere to [suppress] that fear,” and ask yourself what other military applications there might be for fear-suppressing brain machinery.

     It's a helluva a world.  I may have another 30 or 40 years in it and I've stopped looking forward to them.  Fearless brain-wired solders are only one of the more obvious little clouds on the horizon.

10 comments:

Bubblehead Les. said...

Sounds like those who FEAR the Soldiers with PTSD need to have those Chips implanted in THEIR Brains.

This smells a lot like all those stories/movies/shows about the "Crazy 'Nam Vet" from the '70s, you know, the ones the Uber-Libs started because ALL Military Personnel are Baby Killers who have been turned loose on Society?

NAVIGATOR said...

THE ISRAELIS DEVELOPED A SYSTEM FOR EFFECTIVE MILITARY MEDICINE THAT WORKS WHY CANT WE DO A SIMILAR PROGRAM HERE ?

THE OBJECT IS TO RETURN THE PATIENT BE THEY A SOLDIER OR CIVILIAN TO A "NORMAL"CONDITION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE A "TALKING CURE" IS USED RARELY HEAVY PHARMACEUTICALS

TREATMENT STARTS AT PLATOON LEVEL
WHERE THE MEDICS EVALUATE IF THE SOLDIER AFTER SOME INITIAL COUNSELING MAY BE RETURNED TO DUTY OR IS REFERRED TO HIGHER MEDICAL TREATMENT

IF REFERRED TO THE BATTALION LEVEL THE SOLDIER IS SEEN BY A PSYCHIATRIST AGAIN THE IDEA IS TO RETURN THE PATIENT TO HIS UNIT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

IF MEDEVACED THERE IS FAR LESS STIGMA ATTACHED WITH PTSD THEN IN THE UNITED STATES THE PERCEPTION IS THAT IN WAR BAD THINGS HAPPEN YOU EFFECTIVELY TREAT THE WOUNDED REGARDLESS OF THE INJURY

THE ISRAELIS DONT HAVE A "VA" PER SE THEY HAVE THEIR SOLDIERS AND VETERANS TREATED IN DESIGNATED MEDICAL CENTERS FOR ACUTE CARE AND REHAB CENTERS FOR LONG TERM CARE AS IN OR OUT PATIENT AS NEEDED

THEY HAVE BEEN IN A STATE OF WAR SINCE LONG BEFORE THEIR STATE WAS FOUNDED THEY HAVE GAINED EXPERIENCE IN TREATING CASUALTIES WE MIGHT LEARN FROM

Joseph said...

This would be more worrisome if it weren't for the fact that yesterday's similar research went nowhere. Whatever happened to brainwashing? Whatever happened to brain probes? Whatever happened to the psychological techniques that would supposedly enable totalitarian governments to compel voluntary obedience?

I won't more than mention that the neuroscience of human brains is particularly noted for pathetically-small samples and poor controls.

Roberta X said...

And willingness to use crude methods -- lobotomies, electroshock, etc.

Not trusting them.

Roberta X said...

And willingness to use crude methods -- lobotomies, electroshock, etc.

Not trusting them.

Windy Wilson said...

Well, if it works it could also cure a variety of other problems besides PTSD. Say, units considered cowardly like the inexperienced National Guard units under General MacArthur in WW2, underfunded pensions, over crowding at the VA hospitals. . .

Navigator, the interesting thing is that is very similar to how the Germans treated PTSD, Combat Fatigue, Shell Shock or whatever it was called.

Windy Wilson said...

It could be called the Uriah Chip.

Anonymous said...

They SAY it's about PTSD, but they're just looking for an excuse to monkey with people's amygdalas in an attempt to create River Tam.

Roberta X said...

Eric, that was one of my reactions, too, that whoever pushed funding this was someone who saw Serenity and thought, "Hey, what a kewl idea!"

Roberta X said...

Windy Wilson, the *actually* interesting is, does it work better than what the U.S. is doing now?