Dr. Michael Kilgard

My background was in biochemistry.

My degree from Berkeley is in biochemistry.

I just thought, let's get the biochemistry right and people will get better.

And then I had to learn about the brain.

And the brain says it's the timing.

The psychologists have told us from the very beginning, timing, timing, timing, timing, timing.

Just back to Pavlov, you can ring the bell, you can feed the dog, but they have to happen at the same time.

And if you just reward everything, that's similar to rewarding nothing.

So the real issue, and I actually spent more than five years of my life trying to do this without a device.

So I had success using the deep brain stimulator.

I said, I don't want to put deep brain stimulators.

I can't imagine putting hundreds of thousands of people with deep brain stimulators.

It seemed like too much to be true.

Many neurosurgeons say it's safe, no problem.

But I just thought there's got to be an easier way.

And so I did exactly what you said.

I said, what are the ways to increase acetylcholine, norepinephrine, serotonin?

Microdialysis made it clear which things do it.

Amphetamine, of course, nicotine, all these things.

It's very easy.