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Temporary Brain Changes Lead to Accelerated Learning
An anonymous reader writes "In an advance that could help the treatment of learning impairments, strokes, tinnitus and chronic pain, UT Dallas researchers have found that stimulating nerves in the brain accelerates learning in laboratory tests. When the juice was turned off, researchers monitoring brain activity in rats found that brain responses eventually returned to their pre-stimulation state — but the animals kept the ability to perform their newly learned tasks."
This is the reason I never leave home without a balloon attached to my tin foil hat.
What could possibly go wrong with accellerating brain function in rats.
I for one welcome our new super intelligent rat overlords.
Normal existence:
1. Be presented with a new non compulsory task
2. Learn at your own leisure
Lab Existence:
1. Be presented with a new task
2. Have brain zapped repeatedly
3. Learn task faster to alleviate zapping
. .
I know kung fu.
I know Kung Fu.
Sounds similiar to the "breakthrough procedure" performed in the classic Flowers for Algernon, when they made the main character a genius for a short amount of time.
This is rather reminding me of the book, "Flowers for Algernon". It didn't end very well.
Something like this could be useful.. heh heh.
You've already got it. The temporary brain change is called "Oh crap, I've got an exam tomorrow! Right, where are the books?"
... seem to be missing the parts where it says that the (yes, electrical) stimulation is stimulating neurotransmitters; and that any actual pain-effect is being countered by anaesthesia.
And I'm amazed that, all these comments in, we get "I for one welcome our super-intelligent rat overlords" but haven't yet got a "where do I sign up?". Man, when we were back in undergrad before USB was invented(*), we all wanted RS232 sockets near the bases of our skulls.
(*): Yes. You can all get off my lawn.
I can finally learn to get water from a dropper and depress a lever to release seeds and nuts. These are skills I never learned because I was off sick from school that day and my brain refused to allow me to develop them. Hooray for science! But Doctor, will I be able to play the piano after the brain simulation treatment? Yes! That's great I've never been able to play the piano before. etc.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Flowers for Algernon, anyone?
Remember how well t
(stolen from someone who stole it from someone on Usenet)
Sounds like Intel SpeedStep(TM) for humans!
The study is intriguing and the experiment is commendable.
The theory is a bit odd. At the end they detail a theory that presupposes that there is some network in the brain that represents the activity being learned and that it is whittled down from a larger initial chunk of neurons.
A simpler mechanism would be that for Hebbian learning to be able to do its magic you need some random neurons firing. Some of the randomly fired neurons will fire at the times corresponding to when they would fire as part of the network (engram) to be formed and so through Hebbian learning they will soon fire together on purpose and not just by chance.
Overstimulating the brain increases the number of neurons firing at any given moment and thus increases the number of neurons available to learn the task at hand.
Seems awfully similar to http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/11/05/1441251/Scientists-Overclock-Peoples-Brains.
I shouldn't stop hitting myself?
Was the rat's name Algernon?
I imagine that people fear that transhumanism will play out as it did in the film Gattaca (1997): the job market will discriminate against people too poor to afford transhuman techniques and/or people conceived through non-transhuman techniques.
If you do that, if you change the state of the brain for advanced learning, the human brain -- indeed probably most animal brains -- adapt in one very predictable manner. They become excellent learners in the new state, and stop learning entirely in the old state.
Which means you'll learn great in the classroom, and you'll learn absolutely nothing from normal experiences -- when you're off the juice.
Which is crazy dangerous, since it'll basically erase the expertise part of experience.
Again, and as usual, this is a great idea for immediate safety-related stuff. Teach CPR this way, train soldiers this way. But normal learning is a different animal. Slower learning isn't usually a lack of learning skill -- it's often a stubborness to stick with existing knowledge, and that is most often a very good thing. You don't want to lose that in general.
This coupled with smarter rats - they'll be unstoppable!!
I would imagine... as long as the brain you are replacing yours with comes from someone smarter than you, it should learn faster.
Another probable outcome not mentioned in the article as tested was the body that received the changed out brain probably lost all the advanced things learned previously.
Paywall to download, but here is the original publication. At my work, we have a site subscription to many journals including this one. There may be a free source out there but I couldn't find it. http://download.cell.com/neuron/pdf/PIIS0896627311001607.pdf
Now I can finally read and understand all those "Learn programming in 24 hours" books I've purchased over the years...
Emphasis mine. The ability of joke perception among slashdotters is stunning. Tinfoil hats off!
Now this is what I''ve been complaining about guys! Research dollars going to cover ground that's already been mapped.
This has been discovered over and over. My personal favorite however is the independent research conducted by the common man, flipping ALL the switches in a few LSD sessions while incorporating study of ANY subject during the months of experimentation. Results are the same as the rat/electricity but with obvious benefits of not being shocked and having a whale of a good time.( having a good time on LSD is directly proportional to predisposition to enjoying psychedelics,ie not for everyone) I like to think of it as college on blotter paper. Tuition seems to be much more acceptable in light of the huge return.
Hell, If I were doing this research you can bet I would break out the LSD day one and forget the already pricey electricity. Not a green solution.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
The name of this drug wouldn't by chance be NZT http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=72274
Muphry's Law wins!
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Muphry's_law
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
"In an advance that could help the treatment of learning impairments, strokes, tinnitus and chronic pain [...]"
It *could* help those things, but more likely it will be used by college kids cramming the night before finals after fucking off all semester. At least, that's what I would do.
They've laid the groundwork for the Intersect!
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
How about help everyone? I would love to put on a hat that stimulate my brain so I could learn faster. Who wouldn't thins help?
Maybe we could do a year of college in 4 months.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It is common to test these things in rats before you test it in humans.
Rat brains are similar to human brains, the human brain simply has a way bigger cerebrum. The main structure of the brain was already there in the time of the dinosaurs, and what would become humans and rats were probably about the same creatures back then.
Chemically and electrically the human and the rat brain work almost the same (feromones are different of course)
IANANS, but I was good at biology back in highschool.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
1. Figure out a way to modify DNA to deliberately REDUCE the intelligence of future humans
2. Use electric stimulation just long enough to let them learn their robot-like tasks.
3. Turn off the juice before they figure out how to read or speak.
4. PROFIT!
As we know from Asian garment factories, people can be cheaper than robots. They last longer and require minimal maintenance -- so long as they are treated as a disposable commodity. When they break, throw them away. Until now, the ability to use humans as robots has been limited to the third world. Considering how easy it is to bribe Congress, the legalization of programmable slaves is only a few campaign contributions away. For a few more dollars, they'll subsidize the industry!
That's basically the plot to "Battlefield Earth".