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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 basically we're FPGAs?
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
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?
you don't get the BSO part, you just get D
Oblg: You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette.
Awesome pun.
Pound! Bang! Bin! Bash! is this a shell script or a Batman comic?
You get a Blue Scream of Death.
Debunked!
http://www.popeilfamilystore.com/egg.html
"stop trying to improve on what you have. just use it, and take care of it" ??? Are you serious?
I am really glad that nature, science, business, art, linguistics, etc. -- generally disagrees with your harmful advice. Thankfully, we have selfish genes. And these genes take risks. Because risk-taking is the natural path to growth, learning, innovation, etc.
Life is not an exercise in conservation! Human nature seeks constant improvement. Humans are risk takers, thankfully. You only have one life to live, so don't squander it by being safe.
Which drugs? Plenty of drugs taken in moderation can be sustained throughout a natural lifespan without damage. Very few drugs, especially those used longer than the last few generations, "burn out neurons" or cause any neuropathy of any kind, at active doses that aren't toxic. Alcohol is an exception. But heroin is not. All drugs temporarily "lower the potential" of neurons or raise them: otherwise they'd have no effect whatsoever. But so does eating too much food (or not enough), or habitual running, or having sex.
Blanket statements about drugs are rarely meaningful enough to take as useful advice.
--
make install -not war
you can't improve upon the performance of your brain and your body without longterm tradeoffs
i hate that kind of defeatist, "nature/god knows best" attitude. everything you have right now is thanks to people who believed they could do better than nature, and they did. yes, you shouldn't do lines of coke to be better at your job, because that is a hack. it doesn't mean we can't make ourselves truly better, without "overclocking" and burning out. a candle that burns twice as bright could burn out twice as fast, or it could simply be a fucking light bulb that lasts 5 years.
weinersmith
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.
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
yes, you shouldn't do lines of coke to be better at your job
Except, of course, for those rare individuals for whom doing coke is a part of their job. Used car salesmen, comedians, politicians, that sort of thing.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
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.
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!
Put a diode in your electrical socket, and hook yourself up.. Be sure to stream the video on the web.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
How do you accidently overclock a PC??
I like to phrase it like this:
Drugs are like cheat codes on video games. They can be a lot of fun, and you might see and do things you wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. But then it starts to get boring, and playing without the cheat code starts to feel unsatisfying (or to difficult). Unfortunately you can't switch to a different video game because with drugs it's your life that you're playing.
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
I think LSD is a decent example of what you could consider over-clocking. If you take a large amount (like 4 or more hits at once) your brain is in absolute overdrive and can certainly perform some functions better than others. And just like over-clocking a CPU you run the risk of burning out a few circuits and getting flashbacks and tracers later in life. This is the official term, and I've heard a few old hippies that claim to have this from too much use from too much use years ago
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
You should see how quickly people solve puzzles once you start applying current to other parts of their anatomy :-)
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?
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 ]
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.
Cut one of the plugs from the power supply and run a current from right to left through the CPU?
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
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.