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A better brain through electricity?

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Moog
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19 Aug 2011, 9:53 am

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/hea ... le2132501/

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Applying a faint electrical current to the scalp can have benefits that go well beyond headache relief. Recent findings include enhanced visual-spatial attention, verbal fluency and control of emotional impulses. And we thankfully no longer require a fish to generate the electric field. A more modern technique, known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), involves electrodes placed in small wet sponges held against the scalp by an elastic headband.


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Fortunately, healthy individuals have plenty of options for optimizing neural activity without the need for wires or electrodes. Activities such as physical exercise, meditation and musical training, for example, can all enhance brain function, yielding improvements in attentional focus, working memory, emotional balance and other abilities.


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Henbane
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19 Aug 2011, 12:09 pm

Moog wrote:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/conditions/brain-health/a-better-brain-through-electricity-not-so-shocking/article2132501/

Quote:
Applying a faint electrical current to the scalp can have benefits that go well beyond headache relief. Recent findings include enhanced visual-spatial attention, verbal fluency and control of emotional impulses. And we thankfully no longer require a fish to generate the electric field. A more modern technique, known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), involves electrodes placed in small wet sponges held against the scalp by an elastic headband.


Quote:
Fortunately, healthy individuals have plenty of options for optimizing neural activity without the need for wires or electrodes. Activities such as physical exercise, meditation and musical training, for example, can all enhance brain function, yielding improvements in attentional focus, working memory, emotional balance and other abilities.



This is interesting. My memory and attention span are shocking. I wonder if it would help with word retrieval, you know when you forget the name of something or someone, even though it's in there somewhere.

Having said that, it reminds me a bit too much of ECT, which scares the pants off me. I know it's much lower power, but still... call me irrational.

I think that I'd go for meditation, rushing around, and bad dancing first, before zapping my brain. :P