“I suddenly feel calm.” Our patient, a middle-aged woman who suffered from severe depression, uttered these beautiful words in the operating room just a few seconds after one of us (Lozano) applied electrical stimulation to a selected area deep in her brain. The operation, which took place in 2003 at Toronto Western Hospital, relied on only local anesthesia so that the woman could remain conscious and talk to us.
Then, as the current's strength was increased, we asked her if she noticed anything different. To our surprise, she described the room as going from “black-and-white to color”—as if a light switch had been flicked that instantly elevated her mood.
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