Page 200 - Visions of the Future Chemistry and Life Science

Reverse engineering the human mind 181

certain component. Magnetic stimulation offers a unique combination of
component removal and timing and for these reasons has a special role in
addressing psychological problems. So prediction 1 is that every
Psychology Department in the world will have a magnetic stimulation lab.
My second prediction concerns the ability of magnetic stimulation to
influence cortical activity. Already we are seeing signs it may be able to
replace electroconvulsive therapy in the treatment of depression and one
can only hope for an acceleration in the development of this program. In
addition there is potential for magnetic stimulation to be used to influence
the progress of those recovering from stroke, if the ability to influence
learning turns out to have real potential. In these kinds of cases magnetic
stimulation plays the role of treatment and tester because one can chart
progress by interfering with functions as well trying to enhance them. My
final prediction is that magnetic stimulation will be used in conjunction
with the other imaging techniques to obtain a picture of the brain in action
when it has been used to either impede or enhance processing. Indeed there
has already been some success in this area. Using PET (Positron Emission
Tomography) scanning Tomas Paus in Montreal measured changes in cere-
bral blood flow after subjects had received magnetic stimulation. The
pattern of brain activation was not random: the areas activated by mag-
netic pulses included the site beneath the stimulating coil and several
regions to which that area was anatomically connected. From hereon mag-
netic stimulation will be used to assess which of those activations have a
functional meaning by applying it and recording brain blood flow when
subjects are performing a task. It may even lead to crossing one of the
longest bridges in cognitive neuroscience: how do the functionally special-
ised regions of the brain act together to produce our experience of the
world? The upshot of all this will be what science always aims for –
counterintuitive insights into a piece of the natural world.
Whatever happens there is only one route scientists can take and for a
reminder we can go back to Faraday. In 1859, while trying to devise a means
of measuring gravitational forces, he wrote in his diary, ‘Let the imagina-
tion go, guiding it by judgement and principle, but holding it in and direct-
ing it by experiment’ – good advice for the next millennium of science.