Jon Nelson had his brain rewired. Not metaphorically. Electrodes, battery packs, wires snaking through his nervous system—an internal cybernetic upgrade straight out of a dystopian playbook. But unlike most sci-fi experiments, this one isn’t designed to control minds. It’s supposed to give them back.
Before deep brain stimulation (DBS), Jon’s emotions were stuck in a never-ending grey fog. Now, for the first time in decades, he feels… everything. Relief, joy, frustration, existential weirdness. Relearning how to deal with emotions isn’t as simple as flipping a switch—even if that’s exactly what happened.
Psychologists say this shift isn’t just about feeling better. It’s about thinking further. Long-term plans? Future aspirations? The luxury of dreaming instead of just surviving? Those are suddenly back on the table. But adapting isn’t instant. After years of emotional numbness, a flood of sensation can be overwhelming. Imagine wearing noise-canceling headphones for a decade, then ripping them off in the middle of a rock concert.
And then there’s the hardware.
Patient 001—who prefers anonymity but not subtlety—has two battery packs embedded in his chest, each the size of a deck of cards. Wires run from his neck into his skull, delivering precise jolts of electricity to keep his brain in check. The surgery saved his life. But it also made him self-conscious about taking off his shirt at the beach. A small price for mental freedom, but still, vanity dies hard.
“At first, it’s alien,” he says. “I’d lay down, put my hand on the battery, and just… feel it. Like an intrusion I wasn’t expecting.”
Amanda, another DBS recipient, feels the same. The sensation of a foreign object under her skin is unsettling. “Every time I touch the wire in my neck, I’m like, ‘Ew, ew, I don’t like it.’” She’s adjusting, but the awareness lingers. It’s hard to ignore a machine that lives inside you.
For all the science-fiction elements, DBS doesn’t manufacture happiness. There’s no artificial euphoria, no chemically-induced bliss. The brain is simply reintroduced to emotions it was supposed to have all along. But that’s not nothing. Jon describes it as waking up from a nightmare you didn’t realize you were trapped in. “Overnight, I was healed,” he says. “Since they turned it on, I’ve been in remission from depression.”
Not everyone gets that kind of instant relief. But for the lucky ones, DBS isn’t just treatment—it’s resurrection.
Five Fast Facts
- Deep brain stimulation was first developed to treat Parkinson’s disease before being adapted for severe depression.
- The battery packs in a DBS system can last up to five years before needing replacement.
- DBS doesn’t just affect mood—it can also modify thought patterns, altering how people approach decision-making and problem-solving.
- Some patients report “phantom” sensations in the areas where wires run, even years after surgery.
- The first successful human DBS implant for depression took place in 2005, marking a shift in how scientists viewed brain-based treatments for mental illness.