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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.
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.
Medical developments are pretty shocking these days.
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.
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 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'!
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.
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?
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
That's because the reality is that most people don't use advanced mathematics (or, these days, hardly any mathematics at all) in their day-to-day lives. Most simple mathematical exercises in the modern world have been automated, and the complex stuff is largely the purview of engineers and other specialized pros. Academia is the only place most people ever encounter it, and very few people spend their whole lives as students (my son being a rare exception).
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
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.
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.
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.
The article doesn't refer to advanced math, just basic arithmetic - addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Of which is such a basic skill it's used daily in many activities, including ones you don't know exist.
A basic use is shopping - is the 12oz bottle for $4 a better deal than the 16oz bottle for $5? What is the current approximate value of your shopping cart? Including tax? (Do you have enough money?) If you're having a party and they like your cake, how much extra ingredients do you need to buy so you can bake enough for everyone?
One thing I found that helped were the "brain training" games. They fell out of favor when it turns out they can't increase your general brain health, but the footnotes all noted that they improved significantly on the areas they trained in. So doing 100 basic math problems daily did in general improve basic arithmetic ability.
Heck, even doing 100 problems shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes (you don't need much - just adding/subtracting/multiplying and dividing involving digits you find on a multiplication table is good enough - i.e. add/sub/mul single digits, and division has a dividend in the double digits while a divisor in the single digits).