Electric Brain Stimulation May Finally Lead to Uberman

Tag : electric device

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 Electric Brain Stimulation May Finally Lead to Uberman
Filed under: Neurology
At the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke inBethesda, Maryland scientists are studying the effect an electriccurrent applied to the scalp has on cognitive abilities of thesubject.
From MIT Technology Review : To explore how effective such stimulation can be as a learningtool, Eric Wassermann, a neuroscientist at the National Institutefor Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is using an approach knownas transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), in which anelectrical current is passed directly to the brain through thescalp and skull. The technology for TDCS, which has been availablefor decades, is simple and fairly crude. (In the 1960s, it was usedto improve mood in people with psychiatric disorders, although thateffect hasn't been repeated in more recent studies.) And incontrast to people undergoing electroconvulsive therapy, aseizure-inducing treatment used for severe depression that requiresanesthesia, people undergoing TDCS feel just a slight tingle, ifanything.
The device is simple: a nine-volt battery that's been approved bythe Food and Drug Administration for delivering drugs across theskin is connected to large flat sponges that are moistened and thenapplied to the head. It delivers a gentle 2 to 2.5 milliamps ofcurrent spread over a 20 to 50 square millimeter area of the scalpfor up to 15 minutes. Little of that current actually reaches thebrain--about half is shunted away from the target area, and theother half quickly dissipates as it gets farther from the scalp.
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