It is funny how the first thing that comes to my mind is Parkinson's diseases whenever someone says deep brain stimulation (DBS). DBS has proven to be helpful in treating several other movement disorders, one of them being Tourette's. Tourette's causes somebody to make involuntary movement and noises called tics. This usually happens due to abnormal connections in the basal ganglia of the brain. DBS allows two small electrodes implanted into the brain and delivering electrical impulses to potentially change the connections and prevent the impulses causing the tics. The patients are usually awake during the procedure because the activity can be measured while they are awake rather than under sedation. It is quite mind boggling whenever I think about the patients just aware of their surroundings while there are holes being drilled through their skulls.
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