This is indeed an often overlooked approach to very effectively alleviate suffering.
Another key research question should be the optimal location of the electrode. The experiments done in rats only stimulated areas that induce intense wanting for the stimulation, the rats probably did not even experience pleasure but rather just craving for the stimulation.
Pleasure/joy itself is encoded in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, so this area might be worth looking into.
I could also imagine multiple electrodes stimulating all hedonic hotspots in the brain, e.g. in the nucleus accumbens, insula, ventral pallidum, orbitofrontal cortex. More on this here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1705753114
Electrode stimulation of the insula cortex has already been shown to produce bliss in humans, so this location might also be a good approach:
This is indeed an often overlooked approach to very effectively alleviate suffering.
Another key research question should be the optimal location of the electrode. The experiments done in rats only stimulated areas that induce intense wanting for the stimulation, the rats probably did not even experience pleasure but rather just craving for the stimulation.
Pleasure/joy itself is encoded in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, so this area might be worth looking into.
I could also imagine multiple electrodes stimulating all hedonic hotspots in the brain, e.g. in the nucleus accumbens, insula, ventral pallidum, orbitofrontal cortex. More on this here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1705753114
Electrode stimulation of the insula cortex has already been shown to produce bliss in humans, so this location might also be a good approach:
"Insular Stimulation Produces Mental Clarity and Bliss": https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9300149/