Limited to diseases or whether we extend it further an america tonight special, rewiring the brain. Its called deep brain stimulation, and could be a game changer for millions of americans that suffer severe psychiatric continues. It has proven gective for diseases like effective for diseases like parkinsons, now doctors are probing deeper, stimulating parts of the brains that can change thoughts and moves, and even behaviour. America tonight has an exclusive look as a patient crip ed by obsessive compulsive disorder under goes the surgery, hoping electrodes implanted deep in her brain can free her of a devastating illness. Reporter jennifer is about to undergo a radical surgery, a groundbreaking procedure called deep brain stimulation. How are you doing, we are almost done. Reporter she hopes it will cure a mental continue that has taken control of her life. Compulsive disorder. It first surfaced when she was a young girl. Ive got to go to the zoo. Growing up in chicago, jennifer says her mind was overwhelmed by numbers, and she countered unusual objects and repeated behaviours. I had a thing where i saw something in a book or passed i had to count them, on a certain number, and i had to open and close things multiple times to number. Reporter as a young girl jennifer was in therapy and prescribed medication. Throughout her childhood the condition got worse. For o. C. D. , now so bad, she says its a living nightmare. At the age of 24 she constantly things about death and germs. Why are you wearing gloves . Because i dont want to touch anything that i dont have to. If there are some things i feel are so contaminated that if i wash my hands afterwards. Its not good enough. Reporter when you say contaminated, what do you mean by that. Certain things in my mind that makes other things dirty. Like Funeral Homes that are corn tam nated. If i go by a funeral home, im contaminated. Do you feel your upbringing had anything to do with. When i was in second grade, my mum was stick. Therapists said could be my obsession with things dying. Reporter this is the one safe spot, her bedroom. I kind of live in this room. Reporter she keeps her food here to avoid contamination. And keeps her Laundry Basket full of gloves. This will not work, its inside out, i contaminated this. Reporter she wears this 24 7. Her mother remembers the brighter days when her daughter would play outside with friends, unafraid of contamination. Back then everything was good. Reporter julie said she tried everything to stop the spiral. How hard is this to see as a mum . Its horrible. Her whole family is affected, and to see her. There has been years. Even now. She be crying, if i touched her, shed freak. For years. Reporter we saw jennifers o. C. D. First hand when she showed us glass art on a recent family vacation. I like glass. Reporter can i touch it. Actually, never mind, no, you cant touch it. Reporter social. Thats okay. Reporter how tired are you of dealing with this . Its almost like i dont really remember what happenediness is like. I dont remember what its like things. Reporter what do you want . Walk around your house, wash your hands, not wear gloves and be acted do 100 things that everyone has taken for granted. Reporter jen ferp has been searching for a cure for years. Doctors are pionner ooing deep pain stimulation. Patients that are enrolled are really the worst of the worst. These are patients who tried everything, and have failed. Reporter dr kendall lee performed brain surgeries to address Movement Disorders for more than a decade. What exactly is deep brain stimulation. It is state of the art technologies where they implant electrodes and treat disorders like obsessive compulsive disorder. Tour et cetera syndrome. Reporter dr lee has seen dramatic results. Like the case of minnesota orchestra. He developed a tremor making it impossible to perform. We have to, you can only notice the tremor when he played the soil join. Reporter dr lee had him play his instrument while he tested the electrodes in his brain, to make sure they were on target. When the electrodes were turned on, the tremor vanished. And they were able to play. What was that like to hear the murk light up the or. It was amazing. This gentleman was a concert master, he had to get the music perfect. He inserted it perfectly. When he did that he got the perfect note. Reporter thats cool. Very cool. Reporter dr lee will perform a similar procedure on jennifer. She said its her last hope for a better life. When we come back, we go inside the operating room as jennifer fully awake has her brain rewired. Jennifer suffers obsessive compulsive disorder, shes considered the worse of the worse by doctors at the mao clinic. No previous attempts to help her have worked. Now we go inside the operating room for an exclusive look at the groundbreaking surgery that could change her life. Its the morning of surgery for o. C. D. Patient jennifer gleeson. Can you describe how you feel as you are about to head in and undergo a change . Im looking forward to it. Like a kid on christmas morning. You want to get there right now. Reporter its finally time for jennifer to get into the operating room. We are going to introduce you to the team. Hundreds of these deepbrain stimulations have been performed usually for patient with parkinsons and tremors. Recently theyve been performed on people with psychological disorders. Jennifer is one of the first to undergo the procedure for. The first part is the most painful. Jennifer is fitted with a head brace. Her skull must remain still during the procedure. Dr lee prepares for surgery as jennifer undergoes a series of High Resolution m. R. I. S, crucial to avoid haemorrhage. Later on, dr lee passes electrodes deep in her brain. Its like gaining xray vasion, we can look through the vessels. Reporter inside the operating room the procedure gets under way. You will hear a little bit of noise, a drilling sounded. It will not hurt. This is the spray. Theres both electrodes in. At jennifers side is a psychologist, controlling the voltage of each elect robe on a handheld device. Jennifers emotions change as the voltage changes. Shes awake and alert describing how she feels. Horrible. I know im laughing. You can hear it. Yes. Reporter within minutes the horrible geelongs go away as the doctor adjusts the volt im, the electrodes in her brain. This is the result. Smiling. Youre laughing again. Yes, im alive. Reporter what is it like for her to go through the highs and lows so quickly in a manic way . Its dramatic. And i would assume that its very uncomfortable to feel that you are not in control of your own mind, and someone else can take control of your mind. Jen gers o. C. D. Jennifers o. C. D. Is so severe she insisted keeping on the gloves she wears everywhere, even in the operating room. They provide a unique way for doctors to measure whether the electrodes in the brain tart the. Are you able to take your glove off. I could take them off, but i wouldnt want to touch anything. A different contact in the brain, and voltage, and jennifers move changes. If someone takes the gloves, id probably start crying. You would not expect someone to turn off a switch saying i have no o. C. D. , im cured itself. The effect is cumulative. You get a little bitter until function. Reporter the highs and lows are an emotional rollercoaster for jennifer. Youre not going to let me be happy and smiley. Reporter minutes later. This feels bad. It makes be depressed. I just want to curl up in a ball and die. Reporter is there an unlimited realm as to what we could look at. Its modifying the brain circumstanceatery. Any function the brain has, we have an opportunity to modify that function. Reporter the electrodes implanted the surgery moss to the next page. A battery pack, then shes off to the recovery room. Jennifer, hi, good morning. Reporter the morning after surgery jennifer it doing well. Doctors closed the hole in her skull and the electrodes are planted in her brain, connected to a battery via wires. For now the device has been switched off. Jennifer is part of a trial. Half the patients in the trial will have the devices turned on. The other half receive what doctors call placebos. Surgery . All of it. Tell me about the laughing that . I think my mind was thinking something hilarious. Reporter you were changin buttons, moving her mind. Its a powerful tool, making you feel worried, wondering where the science can take us. Reporter what did it feel like when your emotions were on a high during that . I didnt want it after that. I didnt want it to go away. Bad. I had a positive experience. I had an experience that was difficult to talk about. It was worse than normal. Reporter doctors say twothirds of o. C. D. Patients saw the o. C. D. Symptoms reduce the by half. Dr lee is excited about the possibility of using it for a host of the disorders. Including addiction. Why are you excited about that . Im excited because this changes lives. If you look at jennifer, its a difficult situation. Not only for her, but her family as well. To be able to modify that. If theres hope, real hope, its amazing and exciting. Jennifer says she doesnt remember the last time she felt as happy as she did in the operating room. Its been a long time since i felt like there was hope and a chance to push the o. C. D. Away life. Reporter when jennifer goes back to the clinic, doctors could switch the device on, until then, its a waiting game to find out if and when her surgery was a success. Reporter we caught up with jennifer six months after her surgery. When we come back, join us to find out if it works. Ive been ask america tonight has been following the extraordinary story of a young woman literally trying to rewire her brain, hoping to escape the devastating psychiatric condition known as obsessive compulsive disorder. Now we go back to jennifer gleeson, six months after her surgery to see if it works. Reporter a simply hug. Six months ago this would have been impossible for jennifer. Baby tense, right. Reporter her obsessive compulsive disorder had taken control much her life. She wore gloves all the time, 24 7, but no one could touch here. Contamination. Even my own mum, sometimes shed cry because she couldnt hug me, it made me feel guilty. Some of the my family members made me more guilty saying do you have any idea how i feel . , i say i understand, i want to hug you as much as you want to hug me. We met jennifer last august, she suffered o. C. D. Since childhood, a severe psychological disorder cutting her off for other people and the outside world. As a last resort she decided to undergo radical surgery. Almost done. Youll hear a little bit of noise, drilling sound. This should not hurt. Reporter a groundbreaking stimulation. Could you take them off. Six months later the gloves came off. I can take them off. Now i feel like im not protected. I mean, if someone touched my hands, first id hit them, thats a warning. You dont want me to shakour ranked right now. I would shake your hand with the glove, not without the clove. Im protective about the hand. Reporter the fact she could do this without paralyzing fear is a change, as part of a trial testing the affects with or without the placebo. Jennifer was a patient that had it swiped on. Balance. What do you remember. It was super high or low. The lows were deep. Yes, i was shutting down. Then when he turned it up, i would be giggling, laughing, making jokes and had a weird half smile constantly. Like it was just giggling, and i person. At least shes not crazy. Reporter at the ab mall shelter where she volunteers, shes visibly happier since the surgery, and doing this without gloves a few months ago would have been unthinkable. She says she has a much greater lust for life, and revealed an unexpected side effect of her rewired brain. Im more sexual. Im more sexually interested. There were, like, times in my life where i literally walls i think im asexual. I dont think im attracted to anything. I couldnt imagine being intimate with anyone, without it being an uncomfortable hug with my great aunt. Nothing intimate was desirable. I was depressed. You can think about intimacy. Its a curse and a blessing. You dont have the desire. Its so instant, i want to be intimate with everyone, not sexually, but i kind of want to do it with people. And i dont care how well we know each other. I want to put my head in feely. Again. I do. Reporter getting to this point in her life is not easy. Hitting the right volting is an exact science. After one adjustment jennifer hit an alltime low and it put her in a psychiatric facility. I was pat the airport. A at the airport, a liddy was talking lady was talking to me. I could see nothing, all i noticed was the scissors, and i thought if i distract her i could slash my wrists. Do we fully understand what we are aiming at or understand the brain . No. Its highly skeptical. Reporter despite all the unknowns, this doctor supports db s, if done right. Its an interesting area for medical research. A lot of people hear about deep brain simulation and think of psychosurgery. We had an horrific history in medicine of taking the brain apart. Think lob ot someies. Theres plenty that remember that era, and dont trust what doctors say when they say hey, head. Is this different. It is different. You can reverse. If you dont like this, you can end it. Those are the big ethical hallmarks that make db s different from all prior work in the brain. Depending on result of this clinical study, doctors at the mao clinic believe some day db s could be used to treat other psychological disorders, and maybe adingss. Caplin warns it could be a pandoras box. Where do you see this going 10 years from now . This is something that for many conditions they turn out to be helpful. I can see it down the road going in a different direction. I never read that fast. Is there a part of the brain triggering bitter memory. It leads to enhancement possibility yim. Its not there yet. You dont have to wake up thinking theyll enhance peoples brains by connecting them to deep brain brokens. 10 years out. We have to decide if this kind of intervention is limited to diseases trying to relieve them or do we extend it further. Reporter jennifers future is unclear. She sees a psychiatrist at the university of chicago twice a week, and is undergoing additional behavioural therapies, hoping eventually good. Theres no such thing as o. C. D. Remission, its not like cancer where it goes away and you wait to see if tumours come back. Its more like you manage it and its more like diabetes, where you have to influence it and maintain it, and it can easily creep up any day. Reporter even though it hasnt been a cure, you are happy you had it done . God, yes. I couldnt really remember. When i felt it, it was very motivating, im like its physically possible for me to be happy. It can happen. Reporter it is happening for jennifer. As for the others enrolled in the study. The verdict is not in. Whatever the results, researchers say theyll help to map out the brain secretary and perhaps unlock more of its mysteries. Im adam may, thank you for joining us for this special a fourteenyearold. Murdered. Whistling at a white woman. In mississippi . 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