Most everyone who has taken a basic psychology course has been introduced to José Manuel Rodriquez Delgado, the neurophysiologist who, in 1964, became famous for stopping a charging bull in a bull ring with a simple push of a button on a black box Delgado held in his hands. This "amazing feat" was carried out by the use of electronic brain stimulating devices that had been implanted into the brain of the bull. It is still a matter of controversy as to whether Delgado actually controlled the bull's behavior, or if the bull was preoccupied with the pain he was experiencing due to the brain stimulation.
When Delgado arrived at Yale University's Medical School in 1950, the equipment to carry out brain stimulation was bulky and expensive. Soon, with the help of Delgado and funds from the Office of Naval Research, the equipment became much smaller and more convenient. By the 1970's an entire brain stimulating device could be implanted under the skin and it could remain there during the entire life of the individual.
According to Scheflin and Opton in
The Mind Manipulators, one of Delgado's future predictions included, "Micro-miniaturized computers [that] may be implanted under the skin to provide 'on demand' stimulation for specific neuronal pools without disturbing on-going behavior...[scientists will be able to] give light to the blind...sound to the deaf...and induce pleasure and friendliness in human beings."
During the 1970s, research performed by a team of scientists headed by William Dobelle "implanted 64 electrodes in the visual cortex areas of totally blind volunteers' brains. Stimulation of the cortex by a single electrode created some primitive visual experiences, causing a subject to 'see' a phosphene - a tiny spot of glowing light that seemed to be located several feet in front of the viewer's face. Dobelle's team discovered that if a number of electrodes were activated at the same time, subjects could discern meaningful patterns among simultaneously occurring phosphenes...one subject who had been accidentally blinded several years earlier was able to see various patterns and shapes, and even to differentiate letters of the alphabet."
