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Subscribe to RSSLinda Carroll writes: The electricity generated by a 9-volt battery might be all there is between you and the mathematical brilliance of a Newton or an Einstein.
OK, we can’t guarantee you’ll be that smart, but, amazingly, British scientists have now shown that low voltage current applied to the right part of the scalp can spark changes that boost the brain’s math abilities. What's more, that mild jolt can lock in your improved mathematical prowess for as long as six months, according to new research published in this month’s issue of Current Biology.
The findings come too late for those of us who already suffered through middle school algebra, but maybe future generations will benefit.
The researchers, led by Roi Cohen Kadosh from the University of Oxford, suspected that a little electricity directed at the right parietal lobe – a brain region at the top of the head and known to play a role in numerical calculations – might juice up a person’s math ability.
To test that theory, Kadosh and his colleagues rounded up some volunteers and equipped some with transcranial direct current stimulation devices that were positioned on the scalp over the right parietal lobe. Another group of volunteers served as a control group and got no stimulation.
All the volunteers were then taught some abstract math, which involved no numbers. They were introduced to a set of symbols, shown some rules about the symbols and then tested.
As it turns out, electrical stimulation helped people learn the math a lot better -- and faster.
And there was some more good news: the gain comes with no pain. The sensation sparked by the device is merely a mild tingling, says Dr. Ian Cook, an expert unaffiliated with the new study and associate director of the Laboratory for Brain, Behavior and Pharmacology at UCLA. The feeling is something akin to what you’d feel if you put your tongue on a 9-volt battery (not that we recommend you do that).
Math isn’t the only brain function that can be boosted with a little electricity, says Dr. Roy Hamilton, co-director of the Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation at the University of Pennsylvania. Set the device over a different part of the brain and you get enhanced language abilities, he explains.
So, will kids one day head off for school with a battery like device strapped to their heads that they’ll move from one spot to another as they go from class to class?
“I think that’s still in the range of science fiction,” says Cook. “But it’s certainly in the range of possibility.”
In the meantime, though you might be tempted to run a similar experiment on your own – with a battery and a wet sponge – experts caution against it. “This is in the ‘Kids, don’t try this at home,’ category,” says Cook. “There is the potential to injure the brain.”
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I find this article to be revolting. Whoever would suggest electric jolts to improve math scores should be charged with battery...and put in a dry cell.
Say watt?
Your comment just shows how ignorant you are.
Actually, it shows how ignorant YOU are.
I found it punny...
Wow! That was actually funny!
I wonder though, if this becomes a more finely tuned science if I will be able to do this to myself in the next 10-20 years to enhance my own cognitive function?
Now boy & girls, put on your thinking cap.....zap!
its a 9 volt batery... the power level is so low that comon static discharge can be much stronger.
Calling this "Electroshock therapy" is like calling a small cut on ones finger 'Major sugery'.
People realy need to stop over-reacting to what ammounts to little things.
Jobubable, Why so rude ? I thought Quacksnacker's comment was light and funny. What's with the name calling???? Have I fallen into a kids sight or is this for grown ups.
wow, I wonder if my tens unit or my E-stim unit would produce more than enough? I know its got some serious zing to it! Now, I just need to find that exact spot.. Maybe my daughter could actually pass her GED since she can't seem to get the math.. come on peeps.. this is great
By *Revolting*, do you mean to *Volt Over Again* ?
I can see some red neck parent thinking that if 9 volt DC is good 120 volt AC is got to be even better.
Tim the tool man style
That Heidi was hot.
Fack U, we would use 440, U dim ass.
WIN!
I used to bathe faster when my brother threw the toaster in the bathtub.
Now, now do I get the wife to wear the device over the labido part of her brain?
just replace her with a younger model...problem solved
Selfish pigs! Try satisfying her for once. That just might do the trick.
I'm a math teacher taking graduate courses that are all about how to make students learn math better. I am obviously going to be presenting this article to them for class discussion... it should get us off topic for a good while ;)
Yeah how many volts does it take to get you smarter? U figure it out and do the math...haha
Why not just taser them like the cops do...:P
My Uncle wasn't that smart. And he got the electric chair.
And here I thought The Hangover was fiction (cf the guy with the beard getting Tasered and then being able to crack the code at blackjack).
He was always able to play blackjack, the taser part was completely unrelated.
Sadly, I can easily see parents trying to boost kids intelligence by trying this at home. And I can see desperate kids who are struggling in math and fear their parents' reaction to yet another failing math grade trying this on themselves.
Any bets on when ERs start reporting an increase in electrical burns to the scalp?
true...the fact that this article was even posted since human nature dictates one to experiment when info like this is published. Not to mention the fact that this could possibly cause a stroke if experimentation goes awry...and the "don't try this at home" makes one to want to find out for themselves. Do I see an increase in 9 volt battery sales coming?
I'm already a math genius, so there is no need for this sort of shock. Although I wonder if taking a 9 volt and holding both charges on your tongue can increase math ability, because I have done that before, lol.
That would explain your inability to read.
Or... Get this...
You could try actually studying.
Tesla was a genius, imagine his feelings about the band named after him though!
I'm not shocked
I like your pun insightful, However I'm not sure why everyone seems to be bashing this idea. this is the definition of educational progress, if we can (safely) stimulate the brain to help its learning habits there should be no problem with this, once it is tested and verified as safe with no adverse effects of course.
Considering the last sentence in the second paragraph of the article, will these shocks deplete one's grammar abilities?
And here i thought they done away with shock treatments...Duh! They tried this on the mental people and it didnt work..
Not true, it worked very well when done correctly and is still considered a viable treatment for some.
My best mathematical reasoning came not from electricity but from what I would call a strange mystical hit. I changed my major from Mechanical Engineering to Nuclear as my Mechanical Engineering advisor noted that I wasn't mechanically adept, so I should change my major. Walking down the hallway, I was hugged by my Physics Instructor, a Nuclear Physicist, who said "I'm so proud of you." I said "Why's that?" He said the class average on the physics test was a 27 and I had a 93 and that out of the 400 students taking the test at the engineering school I was 1 of 3 people who got one of the problems correct. In a Metallurgy class, we were given a 40 hour take home test to complete. I stared at a blank piece of paper for 10 hours and then I got a hit. I wrote an equation down and two steps later I had the correct answer. The next day in class, all the kids were saying they couldn't figure it out and then the teacher wrote down on the board what I had devined by staring at a blank piece of paper for 10 hours. After graduation and losing my Nuclear Engineering job, assigned to an environmental task, my boss told me to come up with an equation taking into consideration what the MCL was for several conataminants was, as to what we'd clean a site up to for total contaminants. I stared at a blank piece of paper again and whipped something out. I left my job for another one and one day the boss called me up and said "The regulators loved your equation, but what book did you get it out of?" When I told him I got it out of my head, I think they threw the equation away as I don't have a PHD. I have experienced the "Hit" though, where you achieve a certain level of mathematical brilliance, be it only temporary. Perhaps there are mathemeticians on the other side who briefly come through and inspire one to the correct answer.
You have felt it too! An idea that does not seen to have originated in your head, after prolonged concentration. It does feel as if a mathematician 'on the other side' is breifly in your head.
I am not especially mathematically inclined. Among other things, I am trained as a tailor. But one night after doing some chemistry homework and wondering again what the chemical elements look like, I wondered if they could be a binary spatial code, on and off. What? Twenty years later, there is a binary volumetric model where mass = volume, that is a fractal from the electron to molecules. (You should see the amino acids!) Masses and geometrically arranged forces, (even gravity), increase or decrease volumetrically through the fractal based on a "matter constant of sq rt. 0.75 * pi / 2.7= 1.007666313... This matter constant is the geometrically derived set point of the fractal, and serves as the mass of hydrogen, and also is 1/12 the mass of the models Carbon 12. If you want to test this constant, use excel to multiply it 1, 2, 3...and then you will see masses that are very, very close to the isotopic masses. There are some skipped multiples which are perhaps masses of isotopes we have not yet found. And also some isotopes like H4 and He have to share a mass, which I guess could be adjusted by the addition or subtraction of a few electrons. The mass=volume of the model electron is 1/1822.5 or 1/27/27/10*4 . The bond angles are universally tetrahedral and cubic derived in the solid state, and bend progressively with the addition of ambient energy, (increased temperature), allowing the observed liquid and gaseous structures. There is even a lovely structure for aromatic bonds. The matter constant is 'built' in the cubic Angstrom, so bond lengths and masses are appropriate.
The thing is, this fractal suggests that all matter is just electrons arranged as protons, neutrons, chemical isotopes and molecules. Just electrons. And that the way to get them out of matter is not high temp, violent thrashing, but a low, low temp squeeze. I realize this is not very close to how energy is thought to be matter currently. But the idea that matter is assembled through a simple additive fractal from the electron is much more appealing than that there are three universal materials and a tricky assembly which has still not revealed a rational for mass, or clear elemental structures. So, math guy/nuclear engineer, what if unstable isotopes were linearly aligned, chilled, and magnetically squeezed, is it possible they could be separated from their component electrons as they decompose? What effect does very low temperature have on nuclear decomposition? It is great for superconductivity...
Could you repeat that please.
Somebody's been hitting the juice....
I'm just waiting for the "post this on ten other articles and you will feel it"
I felt it too!
The answer to life te universe and everyting = 42
I am awed and cowed by this thread.....i have never felt it but i will try to ...
this article is why i HATE what news does to research articles. here's an actual synopsis of the research that makes sense and wasn't written by someone with the reading comprehension ability of a 6 year old:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101104154209.htm
What have been known for long time for Acupuncture physicians could be new for Science. Scalp
Acupuncture have been use to treat several disease with good result. As a student of Acupuncture I got to
use it to improve my memory and enhance my well been, electricity is apply through the needs, they produce
a relaxing sensation , some people have a good nap during the treatment. Try it could change your life....
"electricity is apply through the needs"
Perhaps you should try it again, maybe it would correct your english skills...
be nice re: english skills.
Am I the only one who thinks it's funny that this was reported in the journal "Current Biology"?
The "actual synopsis" you link to is just another random summary of the paper. Perhaps you could be more specific about what flaws you see in this particular synopsis -- I find no significant differences.
3#that896453 with sur897)) the 5%76589 piece to the root. 9"" > 1/2 x/ 1/3 676the 837. sum it up and feel the jolt.
What now electro shock because the parents won't go and work with their children so that the child would be able to "THINK"..................................
OMG! TY! TY! Mystery Solved! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifVtsCl1nXw
Ahhh. Memory lane. Seattle, KISW 99.9, Leave It To Beaver 1980. Here's "Eddie the Speech Therapist":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Byq24krro
"Eddie... his hair's melting!" LOL
>>"Whoever would suggest electric jolts to improve math scores should be charged with battery...and put in a dry cell."<<
For Watt? Breaking Ohm's Law?
Holy Hysteresis Batman! We've gone from transistor to "trained sister"!
Let's try this again:
>>"Whoever would suggest electric jolts to improve math scores should be charged with battery...and put in a dry cell."
For Watt? Breaking Ohm's Law? Holy Hysteresis Batman! We've gone from transistor to "trained sister"!