Slashdot Mirror
Brain Zapping Improves Math Ability
sciencehabit writes "If you are one of the 20% of healthy adults who struggle with basic arithmetic, simple tasks like splitting the dinner bill can be excruciating. Now, a new study suggests that a gentle, painless electrical current applied to the brain can boost math performance for up to 6 months. Researchers don't fully understand how it works, however, and there could be side effects." We've covered various other potential benefits to having your brain shocked.
OK OK I'll solve your equation. Anything! Please don't shock me again!
*BZZZZZ*
ARRRRGH!
If you are one of the 20% of healthy adults who struggle with basic arithmetic
Wow, I never realized the majority of people struggle with this.
So math performance is measured in months... Interesting. Any general data about the population available?
It makes me wonder if there's any correlation between maths ability and epilepsy?
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
...and test subjects kept mentioning spherical cows.
I think of it as a bit of massage for the neurons. Seems perfectly plausible, just like physical massage for muscles can be relieving.
nice one!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11692799
Not a "gentle, painless electrical current applied to the brain ", more like a smack round the head.
Student performance often improved dramatically, and no permanent damage seemed to be done.
Medical developments are pretty shocking these days.
... then your problem is not math ability, but generally low intelligence. Ever heard of pocket calculators? Or doing division on paper? Everybody has mental weak spots, the question is whether thy can work around them or not.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Unfortunately it makes speaking proper England unpossible.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Not a "gentle, painless electrical current applied to the brain ", more like a smack round the head.
Student performance often improved dramatically, and no permanent damage seemed to be done.
That reminds me of three men in a boat, where the narrator reads an advert for liver pills.
In the present instance, going back to the liver-pill circular, I had the symptoms, beyond all mistake, the chief among them being "a general disinclination to work of any kind."
What I suffer in that way no tongue can tell. From my earliest infancy I have been a martyr to it. As a boy, the disease hardly ever left me for a day. They did not know, then, that it was my liver. Medical science was in a far less advanced state than now, and they used to put it down to laziness.
"Why, you skulking little devil, you," they would say, "get up and do something for your living, can't you?" — not knowing, of course, that I was ill.
I remember reading this as a kit and lamenting that my teachers also had no idea that this was a medical condition. But then he goes on:
And they didn't give me pills; they gave me clumps on the side of the head. And, strange as it may appear, those clumps on the head often cured me — for the time being. I have known one clump on the head have more effect upon my liver, and make me feel more anxious to go straight away then and there, and do what was wanted to be done, without further loss of time, than a whole box of pills does now.
Does anyone really know what that means?
from the article...
"The electrical current slowly ramped up to about 1 milliamp—a tiny fraction of the voltage of an AA battery—"
Perhaps the article writer could benefit from this electroshock therapy as well....
If you want to improve student performance, sure, but conditioning people to associate doing complex work with pain isn't going to work so well when those people are done and out in the workforce.
AH, so that explains all those Russian math genius during the Stalin error!
While these people were in "reeducation camps" having their testicles electrocuted, he accidentally created math geniuses!
I for one welcome our Soviet Math Genius creator overlords!
Because I consistently fail at writing clear and concise grammatically correct monologues.
if 1 milliamp produces a 6 month increase in maths performance, then logically, 1 ampere should produce a 6000 month increase in maths performance. Your genius would be smokin'!
Yes, zap their brains instead.
perhaps the subject should just increase their electrolye intake instead of being electrocuted.
Proper electrolyte balance make the brain run smooth.
They're using their grammar skills there.
You can also just practice math until your good at it.
More voltage!!! :)
This is great, now electric shocks aren't just for boosting ESP abilities. Dr Venkman first established this fact back in 1984.
Supposing 0.1 amp per 6 volts in 39 minutes increases mathematical ability by 2%, at what rate should the current be applied and for how long before you can work this out?
Google Math Boost
Manufacturing, tattoo removal, and eye surgery by lasers so far and now this? I have trouble with Geometry and Trigonometry, but I'd rather have someone teach me instead of paying several grand to have a concentrated beam of energy shot into my brain.
Being able to do arithmetic doesn't make you good at mathematics; no more so than being able to spell makes you a good writer.
Hi, you look stupid, would you mind if I zap your brain?
Uhm...
It will make you smarter! promise.
Uh. Okay.
Ouch
Muhahaha.
I don't feel any smarter...
Would you let me zap you again?
No!!
See! You are smarter already
There are 10 kinds of people. Those who think in binary and those who don't.
There are two kinds of people, those who classify people into two kinds of people and those who don't.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Fucking Barbarians. Don't know what the fuck is going on. It's like bloodletting all over again. Brain butchery. I wish they'd Frontally Lobotomize themselves. Just overly energize any cybernetic network, simulate or otherwise, see what happens. Fucking moronic I swear.
People think I'm making stuff up when I repeat this immortal quote from the story...
"..they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it."
Electrical shock therapy WILL make you smarter!
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Side effects include slower cognitive functioning.
TFA mentions that the control group learned to learn the new stuff they all learnt, but the brainfried group only learned the new stuff.
They boosted the area of the brain that needed to learn, but in doing so the brainfries never "learned to learn", so in effect they didn't become "smarter", as in adapting their brains to new situations. They just learned new stuff.
It does have really cool applications, like learning a new language quickly or help people recover from brain defects/injuries, but I wouldn't try it in a decade or two.
We know precious little about the brain.
Oh well, so much for all the tamper proof outlets I installed in the office...
The sample size is truly ridiculously small. I would expect some rigor from people before publishing these results.
Brain-On! Apply directly to the cortex! Brain-On! Apply directly to the cortex! Brain-On! Apply directly to the cortex! Brain-On! Available at Walgreens.
If you're one of the 20% of Americans that struggle with basic arithmetic, buy some of those flash cards, open a Jr. High math textbook or take some remedial education courses. STUDYING and PRACTICE improve math ability. No brain zapping required.
The idea that there is some physiological impairment which causes 20 freakin' percent of the population to be handicapped in math ability is ridiculous. Brain zap the bureaucratic idiots in charge of our public school system instead.
"no permanent damage seemed to be done."
Judging by the amount of political tosh most of the generation last educated when smacks round the head support I think it might have in fact left them severely brain damaged.
Don't they mean, "1 milliamp--a tiny fraction of the CURRENT of an AA battery?" The article never gives the voltage used. 'Course it couldn't be much. High voltage would jump the gaps between neurons and damage them.
Still, once we have the specs, we can all make one and do what our grade school teachers always asked us to do. "Now class, put on your thinking caps for this one . . . "
No shit! Researchers don't understand how it works, we don't understand how it works, 60% of biomedical research results can't be repeated...
Is this published in the AIR (http://www.improbable.com/magazine/), by the way? It ought to be, because it sounds unethical and crazy on the face of it. Just the kind of thing they like.
But now that the information is out there, it can't just be ignored. Either there's something weird going on that's useful or there's something weird going on that's not useful. Maybe some day we'll all have little remotely controlled (or consciously controlled) electroshock devices implanted in our heads to improve various abilities on demand.
Or any person tased. :)
If a shock which doesn't hurt you can boost your mathematical skills (twitch!) for a mere six months, then obviously those electrical shocks which did hurt me, when I was fiddling (twitch!) with electronics as a kid must be what made me (twitch! twitch!) such a freaking genius!
Zapping the stupid people? I'm all for it! Do we really need to pretend it will help with their math skills though? Can't we just do it because it's fun?
Having in mind that a mop of hair can induce static charge makes it more understandable that we attribute exceptional intelligence to scientist with hair in mess (i.e. Albert Einstein) :-)
Let's grow long hair and make them electrically charged! :-)
-- "In theory, theory is the same as practice, but not in practice."
The electrical current slowly ramped up to about 1 milliamp—a tiny fraction of the voltage of an AA battery.
Looks like somebody doesn't understand the difference between amperage and voltage.
Like it's just the last generation.
The arrogance of the elderly.
Or senility to not remember what happened during your own generation.
The reason it wasn't considered a violation of medical ethics, if I had to guess, is that the voltages and currents involved are ones are brains are naturally exposed to from time to time. Thus if there are side-effects, they are currently widespread and undiagnosed in the population of the first world. It's like how it's not unethical to test(reasonable, non-extraordinary) dietary plans, because people eat anyways.
Doing Math is mental exercise. The only real way to get any real benefits is to just do it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=the%20secrets%20of%20mental%20arithmetic.
http://www.google.com/search?q=1001%20math%20problems
Listen to my music.
those of us who have studied bistromathematics know that it isn't easy.
There's something cultural going on here too.
How many of you have experienced a person (in my experience all women, but surely not exclusively) who, when the conversation turns to something they don't understand, always limited to the STEM realms, they make a stupid face, shake/flap their hands in the air, and say something like, "oh, my, tech geek talk. Beep beep, bloop bloop, blah, blah, blah, hahahahahaha"? I've heard them referred to as a "Science Goose" as that's sort of what the behavior looks like, but there's probably a better term. I've seen it parodied on TV too, so it's not a local thing.
These people seem otherwise sane, but the behavior is something they must feel is acceptable. I'm sure the psychology is straightforward, about making themselves feel better by mocking that which they do not understand, but it's got to have cultural support or more people would just think that they're rude assholes for conducting such displays. Personally, if I don't understand something I find that intriguing and an opportunity to ask questions, and I was reared in the same culture (I think...).
Hit me with your thoughts, gentle readers.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Memorize your multiplication tables or I shalll shock you again!
Reminds me of a story:
Little Zachary was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything...tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers, and more.
In short, everything they could think of to help his math.
Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took Zachary down and enrolled him In the local Catholic school. After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't even kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying.
Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work. His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner.
To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time, he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day, while the mother tried to understand what made all the difference.
Finally, little Zachary brought home his Report Card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books. With great trepidation, His Mom looked at it and to her great surprise, Little Zachary got an 'A' in math.
She could no longer hold her curiosity. She went to his room and said, 'Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?' Little Zachary looked at her and shook his head, no. 'Well, then,' she replied, Was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? WHAT WAS IT?'
Little Zachary looked at her and said, 'Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they took their math seriously.'
Have gnu, will travel.
Swans!
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
In James Burke's Connections there is a hilarious set of depictions of what was done centuries ago by various charlatans using electricity and magnetism. Let us hope the present researches do not make us centuries from now the subject of similar comedy ...
Or am I laying too much faith in math?
It's true! I saw it in a documentary when I was a kid. It was made by Disney, and starred Kurt Russell as a college kid who got shocked by a computer, and became really smart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Computer_Wore_Tennis_Shoes
Interestingly, they also did documentaries about both invisibility and the use of drugs to develop super-strength. Medfield College was vastly ahead of its time in terms of cutting edge research! (But, strangely, they seem to have only a single test subject: one Dexter Reilly.)
It worked for Abe Normal
And he blew it by focusing on the stupid moral implications in his publications!!!
with electroshock therapy for habitual overspenders at every level of government.
Licking nine volt batteries should help with math scores. At the very least it will wake the kid up when he/she gets tired of doing boring math problems.
1.61803398
Hey - it's May, not April.
I know kung fu! And linear algebra!
If they install these in the pillows at Holiday Inn Express, it'd be truth in advertising.
Only if I had a brain. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Better at math, but can't talk to women, damn!
There are 595 politicians, a president, VP, and countless drones who's brains could use a little stimulus to get their heads out of their as*.
I no ewe taught hat vas funney. It weren't.
Done ged mad ate mii four sew sawing. Some one kneeded too tell ewe.
Obligatory reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ7J7UjsRqg
The reason it wasn't considered a violation of medical ethics, if I had to guess, is that the voltages and currents involved are ones are brains are naturally exposed to from time to time. Thus if there are side-effects, they are currently widespread and undiagnosed in the population of the first world. It's like how it's not unethical to test(reasonable, non-extraordinary) dietary plans, because people eat anyways.
Suppose the experiment had the opposite result. Would you have considered it ethical then?
Just shocking!
Sounds like electroshock to me. And many psychiatric patients who are still alive from such treatments are not very happy with the results.
https://nocko.se/2012/07/30/brain-zapping-is-fun/ A link to build the device that does the zapping. These can be build for as cheap as 12 dollars and they work for a variety of uses.