Spurred by the growing interest in brain transplants for Parkinson's disease, we suggested that a therapeutic trial of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) should be considered before transplants were undertaken, and that such a hazardous procedure should only be considered in patients who failed an adequate trial of ECT as well as other antiparkinson treatments (Convulsive Ther. 4: 189–191, 1988). In response, a prominent neuroscientist argued that the clinical course of Parkinson's disease is almost invariably one of relentless progression of signs and symptoms with the individual eventually becoming functionally disabled, that despite recent editorials, the consensus among groups performing adrenal transplants is that the procedure is effective, that the transplant work is based on a firm background of basic science, and that before ECT is tested clinically, its mechanism of action should first be fully explored in an animal model. In this hypothesis, Dr. Fochtmann summarizes the results of the many studies of electroconvulsive shock (ECS) in the animal model. These reports may be sufficiently compelling to encourage prospective clinical trials of ECT in patients with Parkinson's disease, or random assignment trials to surgery or to ECT of patients scheduled for surgical implants.