Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Overclock People's Brains
arshadk writes with this excerpt from the BBC about researchers at Oxford University who found that inducing a small current in a subject's parietal lobe boosted their capacity for numerical learning:
"The current could not be felt, and had no measurable effect on other brain functions. As it was turned on, the volunteers tried to learn a puzzle which involved substituting numbers for symbols. Those given the current from right to left across the parietal lobe did significantly better when given, compared to those who were given no electrical stimulation. The direction of the current was important — those given stimulation running in the opposite direction, left to right, did markedly worse at these puzzles than those given no current, with their ability matching that of an average six-year-old. The effects were not short-lived, either. When the volunteers whose performance improved was re-tested six months later, the benefits appear to have persisted. There was no wider effect on general maths ability in either group, just on the ability to complete the puzzles learned as the current was applied."
K... I just cut the cord off a lamp... somerone talk me through this O.O
those given stimulation running in the opposite direction, left to right, did markedly worse at these puzzles than those given no current, with their ability matching that of an average six-year-old ... The effects were not short-lived, either. When the volunteers whose performance improved was re-tested six months later, the benefits appear to have persisted.
What about the other sides, were the negative effects persistant? Did you just create a group of idiots? Is this legal?
So a third of the group who had current applied left to right had their brains underclocked for 6 months? And they were OK with that?
So basically we're FPGAs?
But I have accidentally OC'ed my PC and gotten a BSOD. What happens to humans when you do that?
The world is how you make it
Just because you know how to turn a computer on doesn't mean you should go messing around with registry keys or your CMOS. Let's curb our enthusiasm for our tiny understanding of how the brain works and learn more before we start screwing around with things.
Back when I worked as a mechanic, the guy that owned the place and a buddy of his used to bring cars into the shop after hours, snort up a line of blow, and go to town. I once watched them pull a motor out of a Honda Civic in 15 minutes, surgeon style (one guy giving and taking tools/nuts/bolts, one guy using the tools to remove said nuts/bolts).
No exaggeration. 15 minutes. It transcended bitchin'.
Living With a Nerd
but in the end, you overtax the neurons, burn them out, killing them, lower their potential, etc
take care of your body, you're only given one, you can't improve upon the performance of your brain and your body without longterm tradeoffs that are larger than any benefit you receive in the short term
stop trying to improve on what you have. just use it, and take care of it
"a candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned very brightly..." -bladerunner
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Any observation or correlation to right-brained, i.e. left-handedness?
How did the subjects perform with a slightly higher current?
And when they cranked it to 11?
Is this really "overclocking"? If I have an 8bit processor and I try to do the same number of things, at the same clock rate, as a 16bit processor, of course it's going to take longer. It seems more reasonable that the increased current had some effect on parallel processing and memory function/bandwidth than on speed of molecular reactions.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Awesome pun.
Pound! Bang! Bin! Bash! is this a shell script or a Batman comic?
I remember experimenting with pulsed currents to generate phosphenes after reading a related SciAm article sometime in the 1980's. Set up a simple 555 pulse generator, use cotton pads with saline as contacts on your temples, and you can get some pretty cool light shows before it starts to tickle too much.
If this really is cutaneous stimulation, I'm perfectly comfortable building small current-limited supplies, and coming up with something that'll make good contact. I'm a little nervous about applying prolonged DC, though -- I'd expect to be generating chlorine (or nasty electrode chlorides) at one side and sodium hydroxide at the other, neither of which are good for the complexion.
I'm not game for sinking electrodes through my skull. Yet.
That's why the diode worked!
If the effect was only with the puzzles learned when the current was applied this sounds like plain ol' conditioning and the "over clock" comment isn't even slightly related (wow, bad science reporting. Who would guess it?).
On the other hand there are effects I can vaguely re-call from my abnormal psych class where one hemisphere of the parietal robe is inhibitory and the other excitatory, and disrupting this balance can change the resulting behaviour (one example I have in my notebook is that asymmetry in EEG readings for these regions are related to depression). So the effect could be due to the right to left current changing this balance in favour of excitation* and left to right in favour of inhibition with the result of either changing neuro-architecture for specific types of problems OR just playing a part of general conditioning.
* A lot of the people who have problems with maths have maths phobia where it is this phobia inhibiting their displayed ability at maths, not an inherent deficiency at maths.
YIAAPS.
========
CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
And please don't forget to leave flowers on Algernons grave.
Pretty soon the Chess Federation and other intellectual competitions will have to start testing people for brain tampering.
Brought to you by: "Al"toids - the curiously weird mint.
Yep. You certainly can "overclock" your brain (and body too) with drugs. But you definitely shouldn't.
Have a look at the results.
How can I reproduce this at home?
Well, these people are learning more about the brain BY screwing around with it. How else do you learn things? Unfortunately, we're missing the user's manual.
Now I can finally finish a New York Times crossword. Just hit me up with some of that sweet juice first.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
This phenomena is quite well studied, and seems to be producing relatively linear effects. It was discovered in the 70's or so. It's refered to as transcranial direct current stimulation and just a few months ago there was a study on visual memory about the same.
It's not really new and revolutionary, it's just that the previous studies haven't been able to be worded as "OMG BRAINOVERKLOCKING!" and thus haven't generated the same interest.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/08/direct-current-stimulation-more-than.html
Yeah, that's fucking awesome, but mostly because it's simply applying DC to the outside of people's skulls and without having to resort to skull-fuckery.
But when I first read the title, my knee-jerk reaction was: oh, so they discovered caffeine?
Where's the BIOS setting for this?
I used to apply electric currents to my head while studying in the bathroom. It was really embarrassing later, though, when people knocked on the door to make sure I wasn't jacking on.
...im sure they went back to front.
$ unzip, strip, touch, finger, grep, mount, fsck, more, yes,fsck,fsck,fsck,umount, sleep
Crud, then, because I and a LOT of my friends have had LASIK surgery to correct my vision. It turns out god gave me bum eyes that focused everything slightly in front of my retina, and that fixed it pretty well with minimal, if any, long-term trade-off.
My dad had high blood pressure. In spite of efforts to control it through diet and exercise, he foolishly took drugs to control it, thinking that he could improve upon his natural system to regulate it. He died a few years ago of bladder cancer. I'm not sure how exactly that was a long-term tradeoff since the doctors told us they were completely unrelated, but he seemed not to mind the short-term benefit of living a reasonably long time.
Also, where exactly do we draw the line? I mean, some people run 10 miles or more a day; surely that can't be normal and can be considered a measure to "improve on what you have," and statistically, those people tend to live longer. Do we consider eating certain foods that contain substances shown medically to lead to longer and more healthy lives, or for that matter, avoiding natural foods that contain substances shown medically to be harmful (fat, cholesterol, etc.) to be trying to improve on what we have? Before long, we'll be living in a world where technologies such as gene therapy could prevent or significantly reduce conditions like Down's Syndrome, diabetes, Alzheimer's, etc. Should we avoid those as well?
I suspect that this study is the first in a long line of research that may lead to exciting new therapies for people who might not be able to learn normally. And yes, if it's shown effective without significant side effects, it might be used much as LASIK is today, a method of improve on what we were given with little to no risk. Personally, I don't see much wrong with that. If you disagree, that's certainly your right, but I would ask that you not judge others, try to impinge on the freedom of others to make informed decisions regarding their own body, or worst of all, try to keep the research from happening that could potentially improve the lives of many people who are not able to function normally in society due to preventable or even curable disabilities.
Just some food for thought.
Fu Manchu: I had no idea that mere domestic power could be so stimulating.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Did you just create a group of idiots?
pretty sure that people who offered to let scientists run current through their brains as part of a test to see how it affects learning aren't Nobel prize winners to begin with....
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
How lucky for those who received the reverse current. Now they're dumb for life.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
If you read the work carefully, the smallest p-value for a stimulation-associated change is p = .03. That means there's a 1-in-30 chance that random noise in their results just happened to show an effect as strong as they actually observed. I commend the authors for being upfront with their p values; thanks for reporting them.
Without being a total naysayer, I'd still be cautious about swallowing these results wholeheartedly before independent confirmation. I don't suspect there was any experimental shenanigans, but the statistical evidence for making you smarter (or at least a faster learner) using this technique is still just above the minimum publication threshold (usually 1-in-20).
Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
Indian food overclocks my digestive system?
Read "The Talent Code" and you'll understand why it persisted - myelin. http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Code-Greatness-Born-Grown/dp/055380684X
http://thetalentcode.com/myelin/
I remember experimenting with pulsed currents to generate phosphenes after reading a related SciAm article sometime in the 1980's. Set up a simple 555 pulse generator, use cotton pads with saline as contacts on your temples, and you can get some pretty cool light shows before it starts to tickle too much.
You, sir, are fucking insane.
Captcha: probings
I love that this electrifying study was published in *Current Biology*.
...include having your id materialize and run rampant.
Here's a link to the journal article
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(10)01234-0#Summary
Turns out the 'big finding' was a significant congruency effect on a numerical stroop test on day 4 in the 'overclocked' group as compared to days 5 and 6 in controls. They fail to report if the significant effect persisted on days 5 and 6 for the 'overclocked' group and if you look at the numbers in the supplementary table it doesn't look like it did.
Also, if this is considered a good effect, there was an equally bad one when the current was reversed. The 'underclocked' group didn't show a significant effect on any day.
Furthermore, the 6-month follow up was only conducted with the 'overclocked' group. Neither the controls nor the 'underclocked groups were asked back. So, the follow up really only tells us that the 'overclocked' group remembered the task it doesn't say anything about the so-called 'effect' persisting.
"...hole in your head."
/. guinea pig? :D
"That would have worked if you didn't stop me."
So... who's going to be the
were the negative effects persistant?
No permanent side effects, as long as you wear a giant heat sink.
Redundant invention is redundant
"When the volunteers whose performance improved was re-tested six months later, the benefits appear to have persisted" Does this mean that the reverse current that made people do worse persisted six months later?
So if the effect persisted 6 months later, then those who had the current put in the 'bad' direction were left with slower running brains during those 6 months?!
I'm wondering if there's greater risk of overheating or crashing.
The word you are looking for is either "droud" or "tasp". Check out wikipedia. Been done in SciFi for a long time.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Overclocking the brain? I've been doing it for years with an experimental substance called coffee.
Ask me about my sig!
You should see how quickly people solve puzzles once you start applying current to other parts of their anatomy :-)
I have been waring my headphones the wrong way! :(
Hmmm.
In five years over clocking geeks will be taking 10MV and pouring liquid nitrogen right into the head while solving PI with 1 billion digits.
Sick!
Too bad coffee taste like cat piss,
I actually tasted both and cat piss is a lot saltier.
Wait a second, what kind of coffee do you drink?
From a New Scientist article covering the research mentioned here - http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827801.300-mental-muscle-six-ways-to-boost-your-brain.html (sorry, subscription required for full text, but you should get one anyway):
"Several studies have shown that simply exposing people to light improves performance on many cognitive tasks."
and
"In another study, volunteers had their brains scanned as they performed a short-term memory task while exposed to either violet, blue or green light. The scans revealed that after just a few seconds of light exposure an area of the brain stem known to play a role in alertness became more active (PLoS One, vol 2, p 1247). Blue light was the most potent. Similarly, in simple reaction tasks, exposure to blue light is more effective in sustaining cognitive performance than green light (Sleep, vol 29, p 161)."
So once you figure out how to solve a puzzle, you are then able to solve it again if they give it to you later? ....clever
Could there be a link between this and the bug crania from the early Egyptians who also had electrical "batteries"?
It isn't that they are unlearning, just that they lacked the ability to learn at the time, and so they learned nothing and thus there was nothing to retain, while those going the other way were able to learn faster and retained what they did learn.
Actually if it were permanent "damage" it would be intellectual capitalism at its best. Those that RTFA and know which way current "flows" would have a much better chance at succeeding than those who either didn't RTFA or make the same mistake Ben Franklin did. Unfortunately those with absolutely no capacity to reason would have a 50/50 shot while those who figured "from plus to minus" might have a greater chance to fail than to succeed, so not quite perfect, but it certainly would lead to more "IQ stratification" nonetheless.
Someone had to do it.
For some reason, this story reminded me of Flowers for Algernon a story that was simultaneously stimulating, exciting, and sad.
It was one of the very few books of literature I was made to read in school that actually interested me. (funny, I would choke my way through whatever insanely boring book I was being told to read while cranking through a novel per day through most of my elementary and high school years)
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Parietal arae are associative area (they don't directly process sense, they do very high-order associate/combination/processing).
With lots of broad simplification : By applying a so low current, nothing dirrectly happens in the brain. Only one side gets a slightly more positive potential, the other slightly more negative compared to the normal potential in a "normal" brain. No impulse are caused per se. So no spasms, no feeling, no whatever. But the slighlty altered electric potential can make neurons slightly more likely to fire up a potential on their own. If they get the electrode polarity correctly with regarding to the dominant region, the neurons might be slightly more likely to be a bit more active.
Again, while over-simplifying : The brain "learns" and "remembers" by selecting the most "used" or "useful" signal paths. More active zone (due to stimulation) = more neurons firing = more "paths" tested = more likely to arrive at a new useful firing sequence. (it's lie-to-childern, but you got the main idea). So stimulating the brain means more neuronnal pathways are tested and ultimately selected. Slowing down brain activity does the countrary.
Thus by modulating slightly the activity rate of a brain region, we can modulate the "spead of learning" of this peculiar region.
But doesn't leaves any permanent effect beside having learnt what one has learnt.
(After the test, activity goes back to normal. Only newer pathways which where positively selected are retained).
This only improved their learning, pattern recognition, or maybe their "comparative/sorting" abilities.
While the latter(ordering symbols) is sort of useful for math, this didn't show the subjects could add up the cost of a meal and figure the tip any better than before, let alone learn calculus.
Well because that's what these associative regions are for. Complex abstract pattern *recognition*. So good for these exercises.
Calculus could also require also advanced planning which would proceed in a completely different region (parts of the frontal cortex), etc.
The global mechanisme is known for quite some time, I remember several years ago about magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex slightly helping the first step of learning to play the piano (which is a complicated process in itself, requiring much more than basic motor skills. so the method did only slighly help the first stages).
Can these type of methods be used to make Matrix-style "download kung-fu knowledge straigh into the brain" training possible ? No.
But they could be used to give slightly nudges and help speed up some general aspects of a learned skill. (Just the same way a sport practitionner could do balance or coordination exercices to help these aspects in order to perfect her/his craft).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
But I prefer to encourage others to give karma-points to identifiable individuals, so I recommend this article instead. And I would propose a kindly glass for Charlie, too.
cheers...ank
Still hoping for Gentle Treatment...
Who wouldn't love to boost their brains in just about any way as long as there are not negative side effects? But when things go wrong, they _really_ go wrong.
PS: I wonder how long we are away from people being able to reprogram parts of the brain. Dissident? Just make him loyal. Some random schmuck in jail gets the peace Nobel Prize? Make him dumb. Etc pp.
Marines double their rate of fire and increase their movement rate for a limited period of time.
Scientists from Academy report that they have researched Stimpack. The Research lasted 80 time units and required funding of 100 minerals and 100 gas. Scientific community hopes that this discovery will help keep Mutalisks and Zerglings in check.
Welcome our new voltage supplying electrode attaching overlords.
Those given the current from right to left across the parietal lobe did significantly better when given, compared to those who were given no electrical stimulation. The direction of the current was important -- those given stimulation running in the opposite direction, left to right, did markedly worse at these puzzles than those given no current, with their ability matching that of an average six-year-old.
Right-to-left good, left-to-right bad, eh?
But was this electrons going right-to-left? Or was it classical current (direction of hypothetical positive charge carriers, thanks to Franklin's wrong hypothetical coin flip). It would clearly make a LOT of difference.
(Which also brings up the question of what the charge carriers in the brain are. Cue the "holes in the head" jokes in 3, 2, 1...)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
"those given stimulation running in the opposite direction, left to right, did markedly worse at these puzzles than those given no current, with their ability matching that of an average six-year-old. The effects were not short-lived, either. When the volunteers whose performance improved was re-tested six months later, the benefits appear to have persisted."
Christ, did they re-test the ones given the *bad* current after six months? I wonder if they're lining up a serious lawsuit now...
There are a few chapters in Shilov's linear algebra dealing with pencils, a number of problems in combinatorics concerning Sterling's numbers of the first and second kind, as well as a number of proofs of the fundamental theory of Algebra that I don't sufficiently understand.
Are there any math departments making referrals to electoencephalographers?
I'm serious. Does anyone know? It certainly would be worth a try, as long is its not too painful. I assume its probably no more painful than having to admit that, despite my best efforts, the beauty of these problems eludes me?
reflective ...
So pushing the current from right to left improved mathematical learning, while the opposite direction hindered it. Is there anything that would be improved by the left to right current? Is this whole phenomenon an example of brain lateralization? This little wikipedia excerpt on lateralization of brain function is interesting in this light:
Linear reasoning and language functions such as grammar and vocabulary often are lateralized to the left hemisphere of the brain. Dyscalculia is a neurological syndrome associated with damage to the left temporo-parietal junction. This syndrome is associated with poor numeric manipulation, poor mental arithmetic skill, and the inability to either understand or apply mathematical concepts.
In contrast, prosodic language functions, such as intonation and accentuation, often are lateralized to the right hemisphere of the brain. The processing of visual and audiological stimuli, spatial manipulation, facial perception, and artistic ability seem to be functions of the right hemisphere.
There is some evidence that the right hemisphere is more involved in processing novel situations, while the left hemisphere is most involved when routine or well rehearsed processing is called for.
Getting tired of Slashdot... moving to Usenet comp.misc for a while.
WARNING! This will void the manufacturer's warranty!
It is by the juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
c0ol
Wasn't over-clocking the noodle called:
speed,
crystal,
x-mas trees,
bennies,
whiz,
uppers,
go pills etc?
Now they're all 'just juice'?...
Most disciplines describe current as flowing from positive to negative, but the physical current is made of electrons flowing the other way. Sometimes it matters, other times not. Before I start experimenting (on my neighbors cat?) I want to know which way the current flowed, for sure.
I18N == Intergalacticization