Laughter may indeed be the best medicine. Research has shown that laughter may be the key to the treatment of epilepsy and depression. Findings also suggest that laughter is exceptionally effective in calming patients while performing awake brain surgeries.
Cingulum Bundle
Unfortunately, in our competitive world, laughter doesn’t come easily. Instead, countless depressed people are unable to cheer themselves up even with multiple antidepressants. It is also unreasonable to expect people undergoing brain surgeries to laugh while having their brains probed and scraped.
Thanks to Neuroscientists at Emory University School of Medicine, stimulating laughter through the electric stimulus to the brain might be a possible alternative. The neuroscientists at Emery have discovered a technique to initiate immediate laughter by using electric currents to stimulate the cingulum bundle, a white matter tract in the brain. A sense of calm and happiness followed the laughter after stimulation.
The research
The first stimulation: Successful stimulation of the Cingulum bundle was observed when electric stimulation was done on epilepsy patients while undergoing diagnostic seizure monitoring.
The second stimulation: The same stimulation was done a second time, two days later, while the same patient was undergoing awake brain surgery.
Similar effects were elicited when the Cingulum bundle was electrically stimulated in two other epilepsy patients.
Videos of the stimulation and their effects are available while keeping the patient’s identity hidden. The detailed findings of the study will soon be available when published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The potential applications of these findings
1. For awake brain surgery
Brain surgery can have unpredictable complications when performed on a sedated patient. The preservation of brain functionality cannot be assessed on a sedated patient, which is why awake brain surgery is essential to assess critical brain functions such as speech and cognitive function.
The main issue behind awake brain surgery is keeping the patient calm and refraining from panicking. Assurance can only work so far while calming a patient undergoing brain surgery. In such cases, electrical stimulation to induce laughter can calm a patient and curb their anxiety. Assessing brain functionality is much more accurate and easier in a calm patient.
2. For depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders
In patients with chronic depression or anxiety, prescribing antidepressants and mood-calming agents can be effective, but they have other side effects. In all these cases, the patient remains calm only while on medication. Long-term use of such medication can have serious adverse effects. In such cases, inducing laughter via electronic stimulus might become the first-line treatment if approved for use.
3. For chronic pain
Numerous diseases and conditions still exist that cannot be cured and have no effective treatment. In such patients, the goal is only to manage the pain or provide palliative care. The electric stimulus can not only uplift the mood of these patients, but it may also be used to alter the way pain sensors send signals to the brain and thus reduce the sensation of pain.
“The patient described the experience as pleasant and relaxing and completely unlike any component of her typical seizure or aura,” the authors of the paper write. “She reported an involuntary urge to laugh that began at the onset of stimulation and evolved into a pleasant, relaxed feeling over a few seconds of stimulation.”
“We could be surer of safe boundaries for removal of pathological tissue and preservation of tissue encoding critical human functions such as language, emotional, or sensory functions, which can’t be evaluated with the patient sedated,” Bijanki, one of the researchers, says. “In addition, although substantial further study is necessary for this area, the cingulum bundle could become a new target for chronic deep brain stimulation therapies for anxiety, mood, and pain disorders.”
The research is one of the first of its kind and still requires substantial and extensive analysis to explore the full benefits and the scope of the discovery.
FAQs
1. What is the main finding of this research?
Neuroscientists at Emory University discovered that electrical stimulation of the cingulum bundle in the brain can induce laughter, followed by a sense of calm and relaxation.
2. How was the discovery made?
The effect was first observed in epilepsy patients undergoing diagnostic seizure monitoring and later confirmed during awake brain surgery.
3. What is the cingulum bundle?
It is a white matter tract in the brain that connects different regions involved in emotional regulation and cognitive functions.
4. How does this stimulation help during awake brain surgery?
Inducing laughter through electrical stimulation can help keep patients calm, reducing anxiety and improving the accuracy of functional brain assessments during surgery.
5. Could this technique be used for mental health treatment?
Potentially, yes. The researchers suggest that the method could be explored as a therapy for chronic depression, anxiety, and mood disorders.
6. Can this method help with chronic pain?
Yes, the stimulation could alter pain perception by influencing how pain signals are processed in the brain, potentially providing relief for chronic pain sufferers.
7. Is this treatment available for public use?
Not yet. The research is still in its early stages, and further studies are needed before this technique can be approved for clinical treatments.
8. Were patients aware of the stimulation?
Yes, patients reported feeling a spontaneous urge to laugh, which then evolved into a pleasant and relaxed state during the stimulation.
9. Are there any side effects of this stimulation?
The study has not reported any significant side effects so far, but more research is required to assess long-term effects and safety.
10. Where can I find more details on this study?
The full findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
References
Bijanki, K. R., Manns, J. R., Inman, C. S., Choi, K. S., Harati, S., Pedersen, N. P., Drane, D. L., Waters, A. C., Fasano, R. E., Mayberg, H. S., & Willie, J. T. (2018). Cingulum stimulation enhances positive affect and anxiolysis to facilitate awake craniotomy. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 129(1), 1152–1164. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI120110
