What if we could improve our intelligence and productivity by directly stimulating specific areas of the brain? A group of researchers at Boston University (BU) tried to figure this out, and they created an experimental technique that could change the way you think.
Impact on the required lobe of the brain
A group of BU researchers studied the ability of a person to increase the ability to learn and control their behavior by acting on the brain. Scientist Robert Rhinehart used a new way of brain stimulation called high-precision transcranial AC stimulation to “charge” two areas of the brain associated with learning ability.
“If you make a mistake, this area gets excited. If I say that you are wrong this area will also get excited. If you’re surprised, that area will go off again,”Rhinehart wrote in a press release, referring to the medial frontal cortex, which he calls“wake-up call”.
Reinhart and colleagues found that targeting this area of the brain, as well as the lateral prefrontal cortex, alters how a person learns. “These are perhaps the two most fundamental areas of the brain related to executive function and self-control,” he added.
In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Reinhart's group describes how stimulation with alternating current rapidly and reversibly increases and decreases executive function in healthy individuals, causing behavioral changes.
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Charge your mind
Reinhart's team conducted an experiment with 30 participants, while stimulation was carried out through electrodes in a soft cap. The task was simple: each subject had to press a button with an interval of 1.7 seconds. In the first three series of experiments, the researchers either increased synchronicity between the two lobes of the brain associated with learning, or broke this synchronicity, or did nothing.
The brain activity of the subjects was monitored with an encephalograph, and statistically significant results were obtained. When the brain waves were amplified, the subjects learned faster and made fewer mistakes, which they immediately corrected. When the synchronicity of the waves was violated, there were more errors, and the training was slower.
More surprising happened when 30 new members underwent a modified experience. They started out with temporarily out of synchronicity in the lobes of the brain, and received midway stimulation. At the same time, the synchronicity of brain activity and learning were quickly restored. “We were amazed at the results, and at how quickly the stimulation effect can be reversed,” Reinhart said.
While their research is far from complete, Boston University scientists were the first to identify and investigate how millions of cells in the medial frontal cortex and lateral prefrontal cortex communicate through low-frequency brain waves. “This study is more scientifically based, more accurate than any previous studies,” said David Somers, professor of psychology at BU who was not involved in the study.
An important question, according to Somers, is how far we can get with this technology. Who wouldn't want to increase their brain performance? This would give the same effect as nootropics - "pills for the mind", but potentially without side effects, since the brain is directly stimulated. Such technology would radically change the situation, but, as with smart pills, the question arises - who will have access to it.
Vadim Tarabarko