The Clinical and Ethical Practice of Neuromodulation – Deep Brain Stimulation and Beyond

Book excerpt: Neuromodulation is among the fastest-growing areas of medicine, involving many diverse specialties and affecting hundreds of thousands of patients with numerous disorders worldwide. It can briefly be described as the science of how electrical, chemical, and mechanical interventions can modulate the nervous system function. A prominent example of neuromodulation is deep brain stimulation (DBS), an intervention that reflects a fundamental shift in the understanding of neurological and psychiatric diseases: namely as resulting from a dysfunctional activity pattern in a defined neuronal network that can be normalized by targeted stimulation. The application of DBS has grown remarkably and more than 130,000 patients worldwide have obtained a DBS intervention in the past 30 years—most of them for treating movement disorders. This Frontiers Research Topics provides an overview on the current discussion beyond basic research in DBS and other brain stimulation technologies. Researchers from various disciplines, who are working on broader clinical, ethical and social issues related to DBS and related neuromodulation technologies, have contributed to this research topic.