TMS therapy awakens emotions in Asperger’s syndrome
The naysayers told John Elder Robison, “You must be nuts! I would never do that, that’s crazy.”
That was the reaction, among some, to his participation in experimental brain therapy called TMS or transcranial magnetic stimulation. But after decades of feeling like a social misfit — misreading or missing other people’s emotions due to Asperger’s syndrome, diagnosed at age 40 — he was suddenly able to sense others’ feelings.
Old familiar music was suddenly richer, colors became multi-hued and textured, and an acquaintance confided Mr. Robison once had been “difficult, abrasive and socially inept” but had become sociable, likable and sought out. “You’ve become one of the most insightful people I know, and I look forward to talking with you,” another said.
“I never had a moment of fear. Many people’s vision of this kind of therapy is like horror movies of people strapped in chairs and getting their head plugged into an electrical socket, and that’s not the case at all,” Mr. Robison, author of the just published “Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening” (Spiegel & Grau), said in a recent phone call.
Read story below by clicking the link: