“Torpedo” for the brain: perspectives in neurostimulation

Excerpt

Historically, the idea of electric stimulation for medical application dates back almost 2000 years. At that time, the roman physician Scribronius Largus reported the potential therapeutic effects of electric stimulation demonstrating a symptom reduction of headache and gout after contact with the electric torpedo fish (lat. torpedo nobiliana), as reported in his Compositiones Medicinae: “Capitis dolorem quamvis veterem et intolerabilem protinus tollit et in perpetuum remediat torpedo nigra viva inposita eo loco, qui in dolore est, donec desinat dolor et obstupescat ea pars” (Sconocchia 1983; Tsoucalas et al. 2014). The first report of torpedo treatment in depression stems from Avicenna, who described beneficial effects also in melancholia (Leibowitz 1957). …