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tDCS Jumpstarts Your Future
iDCS (or transcranial direct-current stimulation) delivers extremely low dose electrical stimulation to the brain using an appropriate head-cap and a nine-volt battery.
(Jumper cables for the mind)
... tDCS has been shown in hundreds of studies to enhance an astonishing, seemingly implausible variety of intellectual, emotional and movement-related brain functions. And its side effects appear limited to a mild tingling at the site of the electrode, sometimes a slight reddening of the skin, very rarely a headache and certainly no seizures or memory loss.After 10 minutes of charging my brain, he turned on a computerized exercise I was supposed to practice while the current continued flowing. Called an attention-switching task, it’s used by psychologists as a measure of “executive function” or “cognitive control”: the ability to overrule your urges, to ignore distractions and to quickly shift your focus. Young adults generally do better than older people; people with greater overall cognitive abilities generally perform better than those with less.
Scientific papers published in leading peer-reviewed journals since 2005 have shown that tDCS can improve the speed or accuracy with which people perform this attention-switching task. Other studies have found it can improve everything from working memory to long-term memory, math calculations, reading ability, solving difficult problems, piano playing, complex verbal thought, planning, visual memory, the ability to categorize, the capacity for insight, post-stroke paralysis and aphasia, chronic pain and even depression.
And you thought that the learning cap from golden age science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton was hard to believe:
And there was a big billboard picture that showed a guy sitting with one of our EE caps on his head. It advised:DON'T BE DUMB, CHUM!
Put On Your Learning-Cap Today!
Take a look at the entry for electro-education to get the full dose of hamiltonian pseudoscience.
From The New York Times.
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