Mr Anthony David Baxter

Ebullience, Brain Stimulation, and the Placebo Response: Evidence and Proposals Mr Anthony David Baxter

In the twenty five years since this essay was written as a biology master's thesis at Harvard University, many of the ideas originally presented as extrapolation of fact and speculation have been borne out and vindicated by recent scientific and medical research, and have been popularized in the press. This book is an updated recapitulation of that earlier thesis, which discusses that early evidence and extrapolation, supported by new evidence from psychoneuroimmunology, neurology, behavioral neuroscience, endocrinology and immunology. As it did then, it indicates how the brain and body produce emotional and placebo responses. It examines the placebo response principally as a reward function and proposes, on that basis, how the technology of Rewarding Deep Brain Stimulation, Rewarding Self-Administration and Transcranial Magnetic Brain Stimulation can be employed in the production of ebullient emotions and in the creation of placebo responses. In general, that technology may be used to maintain health, and as part of therapeutic treatments for disease states. Moreover, this book discusses how that technology can be instructive in the development of self-control tecniques that do not require technology for "on demand" ebullient and placebo responses.