José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado (August 8, 1915 – September 15, 2011) was a Spanish professor of neurophysiology at Yale University, famed for his research on mind control through electrical stimulation of the brain.
However, once he discovered the writings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Nobel laureate in 1906, and after having spent some time in a physiology laboratory, Delgado no longer wanted to be an eye doctor.
"[2] In 1946 Rodríguez Delgado won a fellowship at Yale University in the department of physiology under the direction of John F. Fulton.
[2] The Spanish minister of Education, Villar Palasí, asked Rodríguez Delgado to help organize a new medical school at the Autonomous University of Madrid.
[2] Rodríguez Delgado's research interests centered on the use of electrical signals to evoke responses in the brain.
According to Rodríguez Delgado, "Stimulation of different points in the amygdala and hippocampus in the four patients produced a variety of effects, including pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings, super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses."
These specific physical reactions, such as the movement of a limb or the clenching of a fist, were achieved when Rodríguez Delgado stimulated the motor cortex.
One of Rodríguez Delgado's most promising finds is related to an area called the septum verum, a structure within the brain's limbic system.
Other than the stimoceiver, Rodríguez Delgado also created a "chemitrode" which was an implantable device that released controlled amounts of a drug into specific brain areas.
[9] Although the bull incident was widely mentioned in popular media, Rodríguez Delgado believed that his experiment with a female chimpanzee named Paddy was more significant.
When the spindle was recognized, the stimoceiver sent a signal to the central gray area of Paddy's brain, producing an 'aversive reaction'.
[2] [11] José Rodríguez Delgado authored 134 scientific publications within two decades (1950–1970) on electrical stimulation on cats, monkeys and patients – psychotic and non-psychotic.
[12] He was invited to write his book Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilised Society as the forty-first volume in a series entitled World Perspectives edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen.
José Rodríguez Delgado continued to publish his research and philosophical ideas through articles and books for the next quarter century.