Findings may lead to promising
ways to treat and study neuropsychiatric disorders
Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder, and—as researchers have now shown—in the brain as well.
(June 11, 2013) The researchers, led by scientists at the
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), have used a well-known,
noninvasive technique to electrically stimulate a specific region deep inside
the brain previously thought to be inaccessible. The stimulation, the
scientists say, caused volunteers to judge faces as more attractive than before
their brains were stimulated.
Being able to effect such
behavioral changes means that this electrical stimulation tool could be used to
noninvasively manipulate deep regions of the brain—and, therefore, that it
could serve as a new approach to study and treat a variety of deep-brain
neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia, the
researchers say.