But a new study out of the University of California, San Francisco, published Thursday in Current Biology, seems to offer an intriguing step forward for DBS as a therapy for depression. Their research suggests there's another possible target for stimulation, one that might provide more reliable improvements in mood. Even better, the new target could be free of worrying side effects seen with traditional DBS, like mania.

DBS is commonly used to manage neurological conditions like Parkinson's disease and epileptic seizures. These conditions are characterized by erratic electrical activity in certain brain regions, and the impulses used in DBS—sent through electrodes implanted in the brain via surgery and controlled by a device also usually implanted in the body elsewhere—are thought to act as as a pacemaker, temporarily restoring a healthy brain pattern and easing people's symptoms. People with depression also tend to have abnormal brain activity, so it's been theorized that DBS could be helpful for difficult, treatment-resistant cases of depression.