Hunting for Hedonia

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Hunting For Hedonia (2019)
Runtime:100 minutes
Actors:
Self - Psychiatrist
Self - Narrator
Genre:Documentary
Plot:
'Hunting for Hedonia' explores how the burgeoning technology of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) will impact human identity and our sense of self. DBS is a revolutionary tool in neuroscience and as a treatment it is crossing over from movement control in Parkinson's to alleviating mental illness. Trials are underway in depression, OCD, PTSD and eating disorders. In addition, DBS has a fascinating forgotten history. In 1950, psychiatrist Robert Heath was the first to implant electrodes deep in the brain of a human and in the ensuing years he treated more than 70 patients in his deep-brain stimulation program at Tulane University. Heath wanted to cure schizophrenia, but expanded his method to be used to treat depression, chronic pain, and even aggression. His method was to stimulate the brain's pleasure as he explored pleasure as part of the psychological healing process. But his focus on pleasure got him in trouble and erased him from scientific memory. 'Hunting for Hedonia' contrasts history and present developments to examine and elucidate where DBS is going. Will this promising technology change psychiatry? And will the nifty electrodes move on from correcting abnormal activity in disease to perhaps 'correcting' unwanted but in fact normal activity? In other words: how far should - and would - the surgeons go in modulating our emotions and personal characteristics? If pleasure is just the push of a button away, will you want to push it?
[imdb style=”white”]tt9083124[/imdb]

The origins and modern reemergence of the process of deep brain stimulation is examined in . In the 1950s, Dr. performed experiments in neuromodulation, trying to seek out the source of pleasure in the brain, also known as hedonia. However, Heath’s methods were shunned by the medical community and he was effectively written out of history. However, today neurologists have rediscovered Robert Heath’s method of deep brain stimulation, as a treatment for disorders such as Parkinson’s and depression.

In Hunting for Hedonia, filmmaker Pernille Rose Grønkjær uses a combination of archival footage and animation to tell the forgotten story of Dr. Robert Heath and ties it in to the modern process of deep brain stimulation, which involves a stimulation being placed inside the brain of a patient. This includes a number of case studies, including Michael Riley, who suffers from Parkinson’s, and Christina, who has depression, both of whom display noticeable signs of improvement from DBS treatment.

Hunting for hedonia

It is probably not too far fetched that Dr. Robert Heath was labeled as a mad scientist for both his early experiments in brain stimulation and his later participation in the MKULTRA program. Indeed, there are some very real concerns about using electrodes to change the personality of a person. This results in Hunting for Hedonia being a very interesting look at a highly controversial, yet possibly quite beneficial neuromodulation process.

Screening

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