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Mood-Altering Wearable Thync Releases First Brain Test Data
blottsie writes Thync, the world's first wearable that alters a user's mood has released the first set of data that shows its device reduces stress without chemicals. The study found that "the levels of salivary -amylase, an enzyme that increases with stress, as well as noradrenergic and sympathetic activity, significantly dropped for the subjects that received electrical neurosignaling compared to the subjects that received the sham."
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Fortunately, I'm 40, so am in the latter half of my life, so the pressures that may make this an interesting option isn't as important for me personally.
However, my big concern with a lot of the bio-hacking is that we don't know what the long term effect of zapping your brain, taking this supplement or that supplement-du-jour is. If you are pro-actively modifying your body chemistry, there are limits that the body can take... Even "safe" analgesics have long term consequences (Acetaminophen -> liver damage, NSAID -> stomach damage). What does artificially suppressing one response do when the body when there may be a different one (I assume stress managing hormones come from the adrenal gland) do to the body?
It may ultimately prove safe, but you only have one body. But again, with out those willing to risk it, we'd still be using leaches...
So go on, young'uns, strap on, plug in and chill. Just get it done before my children are faced with the choice...
There are a lot of odd things that sort of impinge upon moods and thinking. I've used binaurals to relax and to keep myself from going goofy during mind numbing tasks for years. I've also used them as masking noise for tinnitus.
So I suspect this device probably does destress people. Might be an actual useable task for wearables.
No doubt the slasdot paranoidies will claim it's mind control, and add another layer of foil to their hats.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Getting closer to virtual sex helmets like in Demolition Man
What are the long-term effects? What happens if that zaps your brain for 30 years? Do you lose the ability to calm down without this device?
Reading the Fine Article shows the sample sizes were statistically above zero, by a little. Several pairs of subjects reported positive-ish results.
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
I find ear plugs an immediate mood improver in many stressful situations.
Haven't read the article...but how large do you want the sample size to be? Is it some ballpark figure or based on power and sample size calculations?
sums up one of the potential dangers of this technology.
"Gerhard shows his findings to Ross, who realizes that the seizures are getting more frequent. She explains that Benson is learning to initiate seizures involuntarily because the result of these seizures is a shock of pleasure, which leads to him having more frequent seizures. Ross checks on Benson, and discovers that, due to the clerical error of the nurses not having been able to read McPherson's signature, Benson has not been receiving his Thorazine. She then finds out that Benson, using the black wig and disguising himself as an orderly, has evaded the police officer assigned to guard him and escaped from the hospital."
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
First the Nexus 6 gets announced, and now something similar to the Mood Organ/Penfield Wave Transmitter...
Coincidence? I think not.
http://xkcd.com/1462/
that show its clients felt the improvement, news at 11!
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
from TFA: "Thync announced a study showing that its device reduces stress without chemicals."
- guess who conducted the study--Thync, of course. Miraculously they found no problems with the product. Thynk 'scientists' (not sure how they define the term) assured the DailyDot reporter that the product works better than a 'sham'.
A company spokesman said "we have been collecting data around how people use Thync in their everyday lives " -- which seems odd for a product that hasn't reached the market yet and few people have had extensive exposure to it.
Again from TFA: "Thync offered an anecdote from a student" ... This seems mostly to be anecdotes and little science.
That said, there is hope that this technology or the transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) experiments will prove useful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
...omphaloskepsis often...
So the idea here is to take our most sensitive and least understood organ, a device with processing power greater than any hardware/software system we've been able to even conceive of, and do the equivalent of smashing it with a hammer?
Would you go to a data center and start zapping random computers with electric pulses, hoping that your buffoon-like behavior would randomly flip the rights bits somewhere to make the machines to work better? No, you would work to understand the software being used and improve it. Or, you would replace the hardware with something that works better.
Likewise, there are no shortcuts with the brain. Until we can program neurons and neural networks directly, anything we do to the brain expecting to make it work much better is bound to do more harm than good.
I'm too old to believe in magic devices anymore. They just don't work. OTC nutritional supplements, vitamin infused water, and magic gadgets, are as useful as downloadable RAM or free range pasta. If you want to reduce stress, take a few deep breaths. It works better than voodoo science,and fake technology.
Perhaps we could develop this tool to the point that drug addicts and alcoholics could be helped to stay sober. Also mental illnesses might be eliminated by such a device. Even criminal behavior is related to depression. But I also wonder about a tool that can make a person feel better when they are screwing up big time. Used incorrectly such a device could be a social nightmare.
Great a faux study and an advertisement all in the same story
This looks like snake-oil all around to me.
However, it has me wondering: What if there were BTL chips like in the Shadowrun RPG (Pen & Paper) or those simulations like in the novel "Altered Carbon" were real?
In the Shadowrun RPG BTL ("Better than life" (sic!)) chips are *highly* adictive. Which raises the question: Would you give it a shot? ... I'd probably take a very close look at BTL junkies first. ... And then say no.
As for those simulations in Altered Carbon - I wouldn't mind trying one of those. :-)
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
What the authors are doing is supress stress-related signals that propagate along peripheral nerves. So it's not "mood-altering" directly. It potentially alters things that can feed back to mood. It doesn't zap your brain to change your mood directly.
soylentnews.org
Shocking! The electric current kills neurons, and to everyones' surprise it turns the subject into a drooling idiot.
Nothing like giving yourself electroshock therapy. See, the old ways are better.
But is there any way that you could just sock me out so there's no way that I'll know I'm at work? Can I just come home and think I've been fishing all day or something?
The study is in a pre-print publication; that is, _it hasn't been peer-reviewed_.