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Elective Neurosurgery

Removal of what ails you.
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Have you ever seen an "active" image of the human brain, taken with a scanner which monitors the glucose usage of neurons (a radiolabeled isotope of which having been previously injected)? The subject of the scan is instructed to think of a particular subject, and corresponding portions of the brain "light up." It should be a simple extension of the method to couple this machine with a computer-controlled "ultrasonic knife" (an instrument used for the destruction of brain-tumors through the usage of intersecting ultrasonic wave-paths, by surgeons.) It should be a simple matter to isolate the neural home of an unpleasant memory or character trait and physically destroy it without harming too much surrounding tissue. The resultion of the ultrasonic knife may prove a problem, however. It may also be a false assumption that such things reside in particular clusters of neurons.
dsm, Dec 31 2000

A targeted therapy http://www.celsion.com/08082000.html
Uses phased array microwaves instead of ultrasound--great technology for delivering liposomes to an selected area. [reensure, Dec 31 2000]

[link]






       "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me,
than have a frontal lobotomy"
absterge, Dec 31 2000
  

       ... even if such things did reside in particular clusters of neurons, the clusters might be too small to realistically zap or cut out without damaing other neurons. AND, those neurons are likely also involved in other things, too.
rebekkahshiri, Jun 14 2001
  

       You first.
egnor, Jun 14 2001
  
      
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