The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Using powerful imaging techniques, the circuit mapping of neuronal cells, and neuropsychiatric tests, Mayberg found one area of the brain, called Brodmann area 25 (BA25), the presumptive residence of cells that seem to regulate emotional tone, anxiety, motivation, drive, self-reflection, and even sleep—the symptoms that are markedly dysregulated in depression. BA25 was hyperactive in patients with recalcitrant depression, Mayberg found. Chronic electrical stimulation, she knew, can diminish the activity of a brain area. This may sound like a contradiction but it isn’t; chronic electrical stimulation of a neuronal circuit at high frequencies can depress its activity. Mayberg reasoned that electrical stimulation delivered to cells in BA25 might relieve the symptoms of chronic, severe depression.