The Fully Automated Luxury Communist world has a lot in common with 'the culture' and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Those two have glanding and the famous Soma.

You might be squeamish about tampering with your brain, but this fictional world isn't. It's full of people who enthusiastically change their germline DNA and alter their brain-function. They have spinal surgery just to make VR more immersive. All that stuff has stopped being taboo.

Worldbuilding allows us to explore what happens when we make a choice that might be questionable in the real world, and follow it as far as it can go. In this case: throw caution to the wind and mess with your genes and your brain.

How can the brain be controlled?

There's various related technologies to stimulate the brain with electromagnetism. Transcranial direct current, transcranial magnetic stimulation, things like that.
Transcranial Focused Ultrasound is similar, but superior in both spatial resolution and depth-of-penetration.
Optogenetics is a big field (14,360 results from a pubmed search) and a fascinating one. You know the way most neurons don't fire in response to light but the ones in your retina do? Optogenetics is when you inject a gene-altering virus into a specific brain-region, and it makes a specific sub-type of neurons retina-like, i.e. sensitive to a specific wavelength of light. Also supply that brain region with a fiberoptic cable or remote-controlled LED, and you have exquisite neural control: targeted both to spatial region and cell-type. You can literally control brain-cells with a lightswitch.
Sonogenetics is a much smaller field that genetically makes some neurons sensitive to sound rather than light. Advantage: noninvasive because no fiberoptic or LED is needed. Disadvantage: less established with a pathetic 73 results on pubmed.
Drugs, obviously.
Chemogenetics (3,873 pubmed results) is a cross between drugs and gene-editing. Instead of targeting existing chemical receptors, you genetically stimulate the growth of 'designer' receptors and target them with otherwise inert drugs.
Spiney stuff. The central nervous system gets all the love from sci-fi writers, but the peripheral nervous system deserves some love too. Sacral nerve stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation have mental/emotional effects.

Ultrasound wins

Transcranial Focused Ultrasound is an amazing emerging field of research. It can do everything that transcranial direct current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation can do but with better penetration and finer spatial targeting. It has demonstrated impressive properties (real science, not worldbuilding) –

It can excite chosen brain regions or inhibit them (by stimulating in a way incompatible with neuronal firing). It can make them fire in a chosen frequency (e.g. 4-8 Hz for drowsy theta waves). It can even synchronise two connected regions by pulsing them together rhythmically.
It can target regions to 1mm specificity
Can it selectively target cellular subpopulations within a region, e.g. turning on the GABA cells but turning off the glutamine cells? No, not on its own, but it can when combined with gene therapy to make sonogenetics.
Drugs rebound on ya. A stimulant drug wears off and leaves you extra-tired. Neuromodulation is the opposite. It is practice. Batter happiness into your skull over and over again. Eventually it's just in there, it becomes part of your personality. (This is called long-term potentiation.)

Two non-fictional pictures to give an idea of the form-factor of the device:

I am imagining what if we pushed this tech to its limit.

There are a few in-world slang-names for the ultrasound helmet, including StrumDrum and StimTin, but I like to just call it a 'bell'.

Everyone has their own Bell, which learns their unique brain.

Not addictive. Addiction means cravings take control; many of these recipes do the opposite: they stimulate the self-control inhibitory circuits. The recipes that stimulate the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, yeah those can be addictive.

Let's look at stimulation-recipes used in-world.....

Brightener

This one aims at permanent personality-improvement. The result is increased happiness, decreased unhappiness (negative affect), decreased anxiety, and increased willpower (top-down inhibition).

Research recommends that "Ten sessions were applied per day (18,000 pulses/day) for 5 consecutive days". Ten sessions a day is pretty intense. But it lasts: Figure 3 from that paper shows effects have not faded much after 6 weeks. So you go hard for five days, and repeat this infrequently, maybe twice a year.

Most people in the society make a habit of doing this, and the ones who don't get judged.

Brightener recipe

Excite the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Excite the posterior and dorsal parts of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Whereas the left is all sweetness and light, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is a tricky boy. It's great for self-control, but also sadness and negativity. So we excite the posterior and dorsal parts but do nothing to the anterior and ventral parts.
Inhibit the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. Anti-anxiety.
Inhibit the Lateral habenula. Anti-anxiety.
Inhibit the Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Anti-anxiety.
Excite the Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
(We skip the Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; yes it'd improve your willpower, but in a painful, grit-your-teeth way)
Amygdala stuff: The amydala is key to anxiety/fear. A lot of people will get their amygdala sonogenetically modified so they can excite the GABAergic subpopulation while inhbiting other neurons like the glutamatergic and PKCδ ones. Alternatively, just inhibit an unmodified amygdala.
Spinal electrode: excite the vagus nerve

Sleep recipes and sonic coffee ⬆️⬇️

(Genetic tampering may render these recipes unnecessary. Some people (in real-life) fall asleep easily and wake up easily. They have better health outcomes, and the genetics behind it are not a mystery. In a world with widespread optional gene-customisation, people won't need a huge amount of external help falling asleep and waking up.)

If you want to use The Bell to fall asleep/wake up, use it for 3 minutes at a time. If that wasn't enough, do another 3-minute dose, like a 2nd cup of coffee.

Sonic Coffee. A recipe for the morning.

Inhibit ventrolateral preoptic area (VLPO).
Excite posterior hypothalamus.
Excite tuberomammillary nucleus
Excite Intralaminar thalamic nuclei
Excite Basal forebrain
Excite the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM)
Excite the Reticular Activating System (RAS) [wakeful, heightened sensory vividness, faster reactions, better at simple, quick tasks, worse at complex/flexible/creative tasks, worse at multitasking]
Excite locus coeruleus. [optional, not without irritability, slow rhythms about 6Hz might help that ]
Excite the Substantia nigra
Excite the Ventral tegmental area [optional, impulsive and euphoric, risk of addiction]

Simple sleep recipe

Stimulate the ventrolateral preoptic area (VLPO). That's it. That'd be sufficient to make most people fall asleep.

Complex sleep recipe

Just do the opposite of Sonic Coffee. Inhibit all the regions it excites. Excite all the regions it inhibits.
Entrain the entire hippocampus at delta frequencies (~0.5–4 Hz, typically ~1 Hz)

Coffee is popular in Terra even though it has its drawbacks. It gives a jittery/irritable type of stimulation and it narrows divergent thinking. People don't care; they just want their stimulation. Sonic coffee is the same: the posterior hypothalamus, tuberomammillary nucleus, intralaminar thalamic nuclei, and locus coeruleus might get you a bit on-edge. But most people in-world just accept it. Some users choose to add calmness/anti-anxiety buttons from other recipes, or some prefer to replace it with this recipe –

Calm alertness

Inhibit ventrolateral preoptic area (VLPO)
Start stimulation at 8Hz (slow) and ramp it up to 30Hz over 20 minutes, speeding up the brain. Do this to fronto‑parietal and thalamocortical circuits, Default Mode Network, cerebellum, and hippocampus.

See what we did there? The recipe focuses on frequency instead of anatomy. This shows the versatility of the tech; it can influence the brain rhythmically as well as anatomically.

A third alternative is to simply use the sport recipe in the morning; if you're eager for the gym you're not sleepy.

Sport

Common to both recipes

Mildly excites left and right motor cortices. "Previous studies have shown that anodal tDCS over the M1 improves motor learning in a number of fine motor skill tasks in healthy subjects"
Excites left and right premotor cortices. Bilateral anodal tDCS over the premotor cortex... significantly improved power speed, strength coordination, and static and dynamic strength
Excites the supplementary motor area
Excites posterior cerebellum. "bilateral anodal tDCS over the cerebellum... significantly improved strength coördination"
Excites tuberomammillary nucleus (mild)
Excites posterior hypothalamus (mild)
Spinal electrode: excite the vagus nerve and lumbar spinal segment (T12-L2)
Excites ventromedial prefrontal cortex (mild)

Version for learning from sensory feedback (implicit discovery-based learning)

Entrains primary somatosensory cortex to high-frequency rhythms
Excites secondary somatosensory cortex and posterior parietal operculum

Version for directed learning (conscious/deliberate control of the body)

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex stuff from the Brightener recipe; that is about top-down control, including of the body. "tDCS significantly improved motor skills learning...by activating different brain regions, such as the primary motor cortex, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right cerebellum", and "C-tDCS can also improve performance in motor learning and golf putting practice by acting on the left DLPFC region (Zhu et al., 2015)"

Inhibit the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC)

Could inhibit the amygdala, but probably not necessary if you've been banging the Brightener recipe like a good boy.

Use for 8-12 minutes before training begins. Top up throughout the training session, between sets. Training is 20-80% more effective

The Drift Hour

This is for a dreamy, imaginative, enraptured state. Not social or energetic, but pleasurable and creative.

Onset within a minute, peak reached by 5-20 minutes, afterglow of 5-30 minutes.

Recipe

Spinal electrode: excite the vagus nerve
Excite the Medial septum with alpha frequencies. (Causes sedation, and idea‑generation that benefits from defocused attention and reduced executive suppression)
Excite the periaqueductal grey.
Excite the anterior insula with alpha frequencies
The amygdala stuff we saw in the first recipe. Anti-anxiety.
Inhibit the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. Anti-anxiety.
Inhibit the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. This area is involved in vigilance, monitoring for errors.
Inhibit the Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Anti-anxiety.
Entrains the posterior cingulate cortex to slow alpha frequencies. This will reduce self-talk, and will reduce free assocation. You could leave it out for a more creative state, but probably worth it on balance.
Entrains the locus coeruleus to theta frequencies. This is a stimulation/alertness centre and we are slowing it.
Excite the ventrolateral/ventromedial areas of the dorsal raphe nucleus (but not the caudal–dorsal subregions). Anti-anxiety.
Entrains the rostal insula with alpha frequencies
Entrains the ventral tegmental area with alpha frequencies
Entrains the entire hippocampus at alpha frequencies
Excite the Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Optional extra requiring sonogenetic gene-therapy: Inhibit the corticotropin‑releasing neurons of the paraventricular nucleus

There's no reason a state of deep relaxation should include sensory hallucinations, but they're two things that work well together. Imagine being in a world beyond the struggle for survival, putting your mind into a happy state beyond all worry, and then watching a stream of vivid hallucinations dance by.

Ear-dream

Auditory hallucinations. The hallucinations will be pleasant if the rest of the brain is feeling pleasant.The stimulation consists of structured forms that are randomly generated.

Ear-dream recipe

Excite the secondary and tertiary auditory cortices
Excite the posterior superior temporal sulcus
Excite the middle temporal gyrus
Excite the inferior temporal gyrus

Eye-dream

Visual hallucinations.

Eye-dream recipe

Excite V2, V3, V4. "Irritation of visual association cortices (Brodmann's areas 18 and 19) cause complex visual hallucinations."
Excite the Lateral occipital complex (object assembly in the visual field)
Excite the Inferotemporal cortex (identifies the hallucinations, can leave it out for a less comprehensible experience)
Excite the ventral/posterior lateral occipital cortex
Excite the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the dorsal thalamus
Excite the fusiform gyrus (Fusiform gyrus is faces. Optionally leave it out and your hallucinations will include fewer faces. This is a perfect example of how this tech can be fine-tuned in a way pharmacologicals cannot.
Excite the superior temporal sulcus (motion of animals, and social-scene cues)
Excite the posterior parietal cortex
Excite the lateral and medial Prefrontal cortex
Excite the parahippocampal place area
Excite the entorhinal cortex

The specificity of this is far superior to drugs: do you want hallucinations with or without faces? Tweak that detail by leaving the fusiform gyrus in or out.

You could excite the superior temporal sulcus (motion of animals, and social-scene cues).

You could omit parahippocampal place area for a less autobiographical, less nostalgic experience. That area will make the visions feel more memory-like.

Omit the entorhinal cortex for a less autobiographical, less nostalgic experience. It makes things feel located; like remembering your childhood bedroom.

Imagination

They do this to perform creative/imaginative work.

Use in 45-90 minute blocks.

Imagination recipe

Inhibit the medial frontal cortex [less inner critic and self-censoring]
Inhibit the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex [Could leave this out. Less distress about pain/mistakes, lower subjective effort. So not directly about boosting your imagination, but it gets you in a less serious mood to help you be dreamy.]
Entrains the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus at 4-7 Hz [inward, self‑referential awareness and mind‑wandering]
Entrains the bilateral middle temporal gyrus at 5-10 Hz [increased fluency of associations, tangential thoughts, faster lexical retrieval, more circumlocution]
Excite the right anterior temporal lobe
Excite the Medial septum, hippocampus (bilaterally), and frontopolar cortex (bilaterally) to 11 Hz. The frontopolar cortex for: daydreaming and associative thinking, generating long-range plans, routes, or multi-step strategies
Optionally add the eye-dream recipe
Optionally add the ear-dream recipe

For a nightclub or wild party

This will make you overconfident, prosocial, with heightened awareness of social cues (unlike cocaine/alcohol, which make you confident but oblivious), but uncaring about negative social feedback. A high-energy mad bastard.

Party recipe

Excite the Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Excite the ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex. (Makes stimuli more valued, confidence, anti-anxiety)
Excites Brodmann area 47/12. (Better understanding of social speech e.g. sarcasm, tone)
Excite the temporoparietal junction bilaterally (social skills)
Excite the medial amygdala. Interesting mix of effects: increase social/sexual approach, increased social vigilance/investigating/fear. It may be all positive in the right external context.
Paraventricular nucleus details under the 'friend' one
Excite the Oxytocin (OXT)‑producing neurons + Magnocellular neuroendocrine neurons of the paraventricular nucleus (but not the Vasopressin‑producing neurons of the paraventricular nucleus nor the VGlut2 neurons of the paraventricular nucleus)
Inhibit the Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST): less social anxiety in uncertain social situations; more willing to engage when outcomes are ambiguous. Plus likely slight increase in energy/motivation
Inhibit the amygdala
Excite the ventral tegmental area: good mood, optimism
Excite the Nucleus accumbens
Excite the Lateral hypothalamus: choices skew toward instant gratification
Excite the ventral pallidum: pleasure, impulsiveness, desire
Excite the lateral septum: calmer, more social approach

Optional sexual add-on, if it's that kind of party

For women: ventrolateral part of ventromedial nucleus of hypothalamus
For women and men: medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus
Spinal electrode: excite pudendal nerves S2-S4.

Study

Use in 45-90 minute blocks. Learning is 50-100% more effective

Study recipe

Entrain the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (bilaterally) at 10-15 Hz (low beta)
Entrain the posterior and dorsal parts of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at 10-15 Hz (low beta), but does nothing to the anterior and ventral parts of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex)
Inhibit the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC)
Could inhibit the amygdala, but probably not necessary if you've been banging the Brightener recipe like a good boy.
Entrains the posterior parietal cortex (bilaterally) at 10-15 Hz (low beta)
Entrains the medial frontal cortex and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex at 6-10 Hz
Excite the hippocampus (bilaterally)
Entrains the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex to 4-8 Hz [metacognition, thoughts feel more structured, focused on relations, if-then chains and articulable rules, feeling of conscious insight/understanding]
Excite the medial septum
Excite the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM)
Entrain the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) at 8–12 Hz (alpha)
Entrain the Default Mode Network nodes (medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex) at 8-12 Hz
Entrains the Primary visual cortex to 12-20Hz
Entrains the Primary auditory cortex to 12-20Hz
Excite the Reticular Activating System (RAS) [wakeful, heightened sensory vividness, faster reactions, better at simple, quick tasks, worse at complex/flexible/creative tasks, worse at multitasking]
Inhibit the ventral Anterior Cingulate Cortex [makes you an emotionless robot, decreased helping, reduced concern about others’ feelings]
Excite Brodmann area 10 [metacognitive awareness, mental branching/parallel thinking, inner life feels more conceptual and less emotionally vivid, long-term planning, ability to multitask conceptually]

Deep conversation with a friend

Deep conversation with a friend recipe

Excite the temporoparietal junction (bilaterally): theory of mind
Excite the right anterior temporal lobe: emotional salience, religious experience, stronger emotionality and empathy
It excites Ventromedial prefrontal cortex: social bonding
Excite the anterior insula: visceral emotions, including empathy
Excite the Ventral CA2 region of the hippocampus (CA2): the social part of your cognition is more important
Excite the Oxytocin (OXT)‑producing neurons of the paraventricular nucleus
Excite the Magnocellular neuroendocrine neurons of the paraventricular nucleus
Excite the lateral septum

And avoids exciting the

Vasopressin‑producing neurons of the paraventricular nucleus: complex effects, some good some bad
VGlut2 neurons of the paraventricular nucleus: wakeful but on-edge

Sensuality

Sensual recipe to use when you're lying on a fur rug listening to jazz

Inhibit the Default Mode Network (mundane autobiographical musing)
Excite the Anterior insula (awareness of bodily signals, sense of "something matters"/"this is important")
Excite the Posterior insula
Excite the Rostral insula
Inhibit the Posterior cingulate cortex
Excite the Ventral pallidum
Spinal electrode: excite the vagus nerve
Inhibit the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex
Inhibit the Lateral habenula
Inhibit the Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST)
Inhibit the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
Entrains the Primary somatosensory cortex (S1) at low-alpha rhythm (8-10Hz)
Excite the Secondary somatosensory cortex (S2) and posterior parietal operculum
Excite the medial orbitofrontal cortex
Excite the ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Excite the periaqueductal gray

Verbaluce

The story Escape from Spiderhead (PDF) calls the eloquence-upgrade 'Verbaluce', which is a nice name.

Verbaluce base recipe

Mildly excite the area 6v (ventral premotor cortex). This makes you ready to move your mouth, would be particularly good for rapping. Omit it if you're only looking to write eloquently.
Mildly excite the Pars opercularis
Excite the Frontal operculum
Excite the Inferior frontal sulcus (strengthens semantic association, metaphorical linking, and retrieval of lexical alternatives)
Excite the Left inferior parietal lobule (supramarginal/angular gyrus)
It excites Broca's area, Wernicke's area, Medial septum, hippocampus (bilaterally), and the bilateral middle temporal gyrus and the right anterior temporal lobe and the frontopolar cortex (bilaterally) with the same structured waveforms that cycle through different frequencies. The idea here is sync the speech area with the Imagination formula. If you wanted to be articulate on a different subject, you'd sync the speech area with, say, the Default Mode Network.

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[–] Vampire@hexbear.net 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Meddle with your head a bit just for the hell of it

@MoreLikeHazBeen@hexbear.net does this sound familiar?

[–] MoreLikeHazBeen@hexbear.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

OP listens to constructus corporation I guess?