Argument
Neurostimulation
Overview
Neurostimulation is the purposeful modulation of the nervous system's activity using invasive (e.g., microelectrodes) or non-invasive means (e.g., transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial electric stimulation such as tDCS or tACS). Neurostimulation usually refers to the electromagnetic approaches to neuromodulation.
Neurostimulation technology can improve the life quality of those who are severely paralyzed or have profound losses to various sense organs, as well as for permanent reduction of severe, chronic pain which would otherwise require constant (around-the-clock), high-dose opioid therapy (such as neuropathic pain and spinal-cord injury). It serves as the key part of neural prosthetics for hearing aids, artificial vision, artificial limbs, and brain-machine interfaces. In the case of neural stimulation, primarily electrical stimulation is utilized, and charge-balanced biphasic constant current waveforms or capacitively coupled charge injection approaches are adopted. Alternatively, transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial electric stimulation have been proposed as non-invasive methods in which either a magnetic field or transcranially applied electric currents cause neurostimulation.
A recent scientific review (2024) has identified relevant hypotheses on the cellular-level processes underlying non-invasive neurostimulation. Data analysis revealed that mitochondrial activity probably plays a central role in brain stimulation implemented by different approaches. In addition, analysis of the mother-fetus neurocognitive model provided insights into the conditions of natural neurostimulation of the fetal nervous system during pregnancy. Based on these results, the article suggested the hypothesis of the origin of neurostimulation during gestation. According to this position, natural neurostimulation occurs during pregnancy due to the electromagnetic properties of the mother's heart and its interaction with the mother's own and fetal nervous system. Natural neurostimulation ensures the balanced development of the embryo's nervous system and guarantees the development of the correct architecture of the nervous system with the necessary cognitive functions corresponding to the ecological context and the qualities that make human beings unique. According to Latvian prof Igor Val Danilov, natural neurostimulation is the basis of many neurostimulation techniques.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
From all sides the ‘charging energy’ is called on in order to create all round the breach correspondingly high ‘charges’ of energy. An immense ‘counter-charge’ is set up, in favour of which all the other psychic systems are impoverished, so that a wide-spread paralysis or diminution of other psychic activity follows. We endeavour to learn from examples such as these to base our metapsychological conjectures on such…
Sigmund Freud, Beyond the pleasure principle
States what Neurostimulation is.
"Mnemic phenomena" are defined as those due to engrams; in animals, they are specially associated with the nervous system, but not exclusively, even in man. When two stimuli occur together, one of them, occurring afterwards, may call out the reaction for the other also. We call this an "ekphoric influence," and stimuli having this character are called "ekphoric stimuli." In such a case we call the engrams of the two…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
States what Neurostimulation is.
But now, carrying with us the conception made clear by the first cases and suggested by the last, we shall appreciate the extent to which this general physiological method, as we may call it, is employed. The convulsive action caused by tickling shows it conspicuously. An extremely small amount of molecular change in the nerve-endings produces an immense amount of molecular change, and resulting molar motion, in the…
Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, Volume 1
Close in meaning to Neurostimulation; the term itself is not named.
Related ideas
- Epilepsy
- Psychiatry
- Maxwell's equations
- Nervous system
- Memory
- Visual cortex
- Brain
- Stimulation
- Hippocampus
- Stroke
- Luigi Galvani
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation
- Tourette syndrome
Place in the tradition
Part of Metaphysical naturalism.