There has never been a time in the history of medicine that one technique has held promise for so many different brain diseases, from calming tremors and rigidity of Parkinson’s to waking up brain areas offline in people who suffered severe brain trauma and are in minimally conscious states. Neuroscience writer Jamie Talan tells the compelling story of the birth of this technique and how it emerged into the surgical suites across the country and the world to help people control a myriad of symptoms. But its promise also arrives with pitfalls, and Talan explores all of the issues that have come to the surface as the technique is tried to treat some of the most vexing diseases of the century; depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, epilepsy, dystonia and states of unconsciousness. You’ll meet the patient pioneers who failed traditional therapies and took a chance on a technique that would often take months of fine-tuning. You’ll meet the doctors, the ethicists and the teams of medical professionals who saw the promise of electrical stimulation to alter the brain and relieve symptoms for tens of thousands of patients.