The investigator, dressed incongruously in sweater and tie and holding a small metal box, stands in a bullring. He taunts a bull with a gesture of his hand. Suddenly the bull faces him and charges. Taking a couple of steps back, the investigator presses a button on the box to send a radio signal, and the bull halts in mid-stride. It turns away. The animal’s natural aggression has evaporated.
This risky behavior-control demonstration, conducted in Spain in 1963, was the signature experiment of José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado, a physiologist and scientific showman who explored the varied responses of the brain to electrical stimulation.
