Every exhausted lawyer, banker, accountant, doctor or other professional now needs to take note: using a 9 volt battery charger, you can jolt yourself into high performance. No, this is not fantasy, you need no drugs, alcohol or other substances – just a quick plug into the electricity – and you are an all singing , all dancing high performer.
This could be the break through Managing Partners and Directors have been waiting for – so queue up here to buy this great little gadget. Oops check out point 2 – they are not quite sure, yet, just what this does to you longer term – but hey, it could be fun finding out – and if you are over 55 years old, maybe you have your day??
The Use of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (referred to by Rohit Talwar, CEO of Fast Futures, June 2012)
1. "In a society where both students and their professors take stimulant medications to meet their academic expectations, the potential pressure for the use of cognitive enhancing technologies of all types is very real“ says Roy Hamilton, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who believes we are seeing a new trend towards cosmetic neuroscience
2. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is one way to artificially enhance brain function and ability – and has a number of amateur fans who experiment at home DIY style, sometimes to their detriment
3. Essentially, tDCS works by running 9 volts of electricity through the brain. Why or how this works precisely, is unknown
4. The mild electrical shock, which is applied to the area of the brain associated with the skill which is being undertaken at the time, is meant to depolarise the neuronal membranes in that region, making the cells more excitable and responsive to inputs. This may accelerate the formation of new neural pathways during the time that the skill is being practised.
5. Another explanation is that as certain parts of the brain are stimulated, they repress activity in the prefrontal cortex - the area used in critical thought, creating greater focus and concentration (1)
6. The results of tDCS is a rapid increase in ability of complex tasks, such as mathematical skills, languages, problem solving, attention span, memory, movement, coordination, and marksmanship, which is why the US Army is pioneering and developing tDCS. Certain methods of tDCS can improve the speed with which a marksman can detect a threat by a factor of 2.3, and cuts drone remote-pilot training time in half (1)(3)(4)
• Those that receive tDCS often reports that time has passed unduly fast and focused calm concentration, it seems that there is such intense focus by the participant that time is forgotten (1)
• Importantly, these benefits remain, and improvements in ability were still seen six months later, when subjects from an Oxford study were assessed (3)
• As this is fairly low tech, it could after further study, conceivably become widely available – and would undoubtedly spark ethical debates and concerns around who had access to the technology and what the wider implications are for society (2)
• Originally developed at the Oxford program to help patients suffering from brain injuries like stroke and learning difficulties, learning impaired adults and children may stand to benefit significantly from this technology, however, there may be significant ethical questions around the testing of this technology on those that are cognitively impaired (2)(3)
Source (1): Adee. February 2012. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328501.600-zap-your-brain-into-the-zone-fast-track-to-pure-focus.html?full=true
Source (2): Savulescu. January 2012. http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/01/transcranial-direct-current-stimulation-fundamental-enhancement-for-humanity/
Source (3): BBC. January 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16739645
Source (4): Gizmodo. February 2012. http://gizmodo.com/5882754/how-to-electrify-your-brain-to-be-smarter-with-a-9+volt-battery
(accessed 04/05 2012)