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Using Magnets To Turn Off the Brain's Speech Center
An editor for the Telegraph, Roger Highfield, recently volunteered to allow a UK researcher to shut off the speech center of his brain with a high-powered magnetic pulse. Regular speech is controlled by a section of the brain called Broca's area. Once the precise location is determined in the subject, a magnetic pulse can temporarily disrupt speech without impairing other cognitive functions. The link contains a video in which you can watch Highfield stutter and twitch while attempting to recite a nursery rhyme. A later test shows that he's able to sing the rhyme without difficulty, since singing is controlled in a different part of the brain (as you may remember from Scott Adams' speech disorder). Researchers believe that the ability to stimulate or quell activity in specific areas of the brain may help in treating conditions like epilepsy and migraine headaches.
needs a zappie!
pff... real networks have been doing this stuttering thing since 1995.
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
... that take away my speech centers when I meet a pretty girl.
shouldn't it be from the bzzt-ow-bzzt-ow-bzzzzzzzt-........ dept?
A man spends the first half of his life accumulating stuff, the second trying to get rid of it all.
but can they make you sing folk songs?
Monstar L
What makes you think they will hear your objections?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
If only this had been developed 20 years ago, I'd still be married. (I'd have ordered two right off the bat -- one for her and one for her mother.....)
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
I'm speechless!
And the magnets prevent in TVs can take the entire brain out. What a surprise !
Non-Linux Penguins ?
So here I was, speedreading through /., and the scientific suggestion of
"Using Maggots To Turn Off The Brain's Speech Center"
snatched my Sunday morning mind's attention like a zombie. Litereally. So, is there something here I'm missing? Like how does one direct those blood suckers to the speech center of a brain, assuming it's not major surgery to introduce them? And why...? Is DARPA going over to the dark side in the fight against terrorists?
Alas, after 15 second of grimacing and beweilderment I realized my sleep-hazed eyes were misreading.
Dang, I hope I didn't give some royalty fee collection company another bad idea to file a patent for...
I would have to think that it would not take much in the way of forensic aptitude to track down the person(s) manipulating the giant magnetic coil next to the guys head.
And does anyone think that there is something a bit odd about the assistant's name being "Muggleton"?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
what use is a phone call if you are ... unable ... to ... speak?
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
You're making the classic engineering mistake: mis-defining the problem.
Disrupting the speech centers of the brain does not preempt attempts at communications. And you need communication; it's just that men, left to themselves, would communicate by passing terse status messages: "I'm hungry"; "I'm angry"; "I'm going to sleep"; "I want sex."
Women send the same status messages, but they seem to gain satisfaction out of the process itself. Therefore they send messages in steganographic form: the basis status messages are there, wrapped all kinds of other data which do not require your immediate action. It pays to pay at least some attention; she may start an "I want sex" status message by telling you that her sister's neighbor's aunt is going in for a gall stone operation.
The wise man knows that he should celebrate the differences between the sexes if he wants to celebrate the difference between the sexes.
Therefore, it is best to cultivate the skill of appearing mildly interested and engaged, making reflexive, non-committal listening responses, and paying just enough attention to pick out any cues that indicate something that requires immediate action. It's a lot like driving, actually. You get that sixth sense for when somebody is going to cut you off, or roll into an intersection without coming to a stop. It's not magic, it's practice.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
In other news, it was revealed President Bush has been wearing a toupe for years to hide an area of partial baldness. "I love it!" Mr. Bush exclaimed. "I found this great place that uses rare earth magnets to keep 'em on your head. Real convenient like."
Is it only me, or do you see a potential weapons application for this in the future? With the proper mastery of magnetism and the human mind, a team could build, in a helmet, an amplifier device that could be used by a trained professional to target individuals precisely, anywhere in the world.
I'd call this contraption... "Cerebro".
You can't take the sky from me...
how does one direct those blood suckers to the speech center of a brain KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
You can't take the sky from me...
So they gave him instructions before they started, "If you start to feel pain, tell us to stop. OK, now we're going to disrupt your speech center."
...the basis status messages are there, wrapped all kinds of other data which do not require your immediate action. So... you're saying women transmit XML? I guess that sounds about right.
...but she doesn't bring her sister, her sister's neighbour or gall stones into the request. Damn, just when things were starting to turn kinky...Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.