(But don't try this at home)
9-Volt Battery Wikimedia Commons
Neuroscientists at the University of New Mexico asked volunteers to play a video game called “DARWARS Ambush!”, developed to help train American military personnel. Half of the players received 2 milliamps of electricity to the scalp, using a device powered by a simple 9-volt battery, and they played twice as well as those receiving a much tinier jolt. The DARPA-funded study suggests direct current applied to the brain could improve learning.
This type of brain stimulation, called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), is controversial but could show promise for treatment of various neurological disorders and cognitive impairments. Click through to Nature News for a thorough overview.
It’s different from transcranial magnetic stimulation, in which a magnetic coil running at high voltage is positioned close to the head. The magnets stimulate electrical responses in the brain. Transcranial direct current stimulation is just what it sounds, applying the current directly to the brain.
We’ve been hearing quite a lot about these methods lately, and the scientific literature indicates the fields — tDCS in particular — are experiencing a revival, Nature News points out. Scientists hope the methods could be used to treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, stroke and autism, as well as to improve learning by increasing the brain’s plasticity.
Researchers are beginning to understand how an external electrical current affects brain function, including by inducing changes to the flow of electricity across neurons and increasing the expression of certain synapse proteins.
Apparently, it takes very little electricity to do all this. But please, don’t start hooking up 9-volt batteries to your brain — leave that to the scientific studies.
I think this article is very interesting. I don't think people should use this to do better at video games especially if they play videogames professionally as their job because it can be seen as a way of cheating. but I think if it can help people medically oor maybe help cure diseases its all good.
ReplyDeleteI personally would hook a 9 volt battery to my brain to improve at pretty much anything. Especially video games because I'm a huge gamer. However I think they should find a way to do this "Inception" type stuff to help people type faster.
ReplyDeleteI think this article is very interesting. It would be great if this helped people with certain disorders to learn quicker. I would not have this done to me though.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be fun to better at gaming but it is a very dangerous experiment and i would not want to do this. If it helped in other ways like learning or understanding things easily i might but still i would be scared to do it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very cool experiment. I think this would be great to help people with disorders or to help people learn faster. This is very cool but very dangerous. I would personally not do this to myself.
ReplyDeleteI think that this sounds dangerous. Doing this could have effects on people in later years that they don't know about yet. This could be cool for people with disabilities though.
ReplyDeleteThis seems quite dangerous, foolish as well. There could be so many things that could go with this experiment. Some effecting short and long term lifestyles, to me the high risk of damage to yourself just doesn't seem worth it
ReplyDeleteI think this would be awesome if it actually worked. It could help millions of people with problems caused by something wrong with their brain. It also stated it can help you learn, which is great. The only thing is, this sounds terribly dangerous, and I feel like not many people are willing to be experimented on in this case.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would never try this out. It doesn't matter what it helps, it sounds extreamly dangerous. But, I think it would be interesting for people who wouldn't care to do it, or people who want to do better with some of the things it helps you with to try it out, and see if it really works.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion i dont think this will work, the only thing it prolly work for is to kill someone or give them some serious brain damage. It does sound good for like a movie or fake tv show or something but on a real life human noo. Their brain will prolly fry soon as it happens. Also i would never try this im perfectly fine with myself the way I am.
ReplyDeleteIt's pronounced probably. However I think this is in no way dangerous. I would pay good money to have this done to me.
DeleteThis is crazy. It may help short term... but it will eventually wear off and people will want to continuously get it done. I believe there is no doubt that this would cause long term damage to the bran and cause lots of different problems. Its extremely dangerous and people would become attached to the feeling of being better that they were.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is stupid and dangerous. It seems like it would be a good idea, but it has a lot of flaws. Like what if the battery explodes? It could mess with your brain and wouldn't it give off radiation? I just don't think that this is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI think that this may seem like a good idea, but it is also very dangerous and can lead to brain damage. If this were to help certain disorders that would be great, but there would be major side effects that I think outweigh the good that it could do.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this is a very dangerous idea that could cause many problems with the brain. This idea could only be good if it would be able to help people and not just to make you better at a video game. So this idea can have a positive or negative side depending on how you look at it.
ReplyDeleteI think that in some ways it could be helpful especially with people who have struggles learning, but before anyone ever tries it, I think scientists should use the scientific method and peer review and all the things they are supposed to, to see if and what are the side effects. But it's also like a drug because people do take drugs to get better at video games, it all has its ups and downs but personally I think it'd have more downs then ups.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I think this is pretty dangerous. I also think that it could do long-term damage to someone's brain and/or nervous system. I wouldn't personally want anyone to try this especially for something minor like performance on a video game. I think that if it was proven less dangerous, and more helpful it could be a good idea for people with disabilities if the damage was minor and could easily be fixed. but I think it actually would have to have a wonderful reason for someone to preform an act that could possibly have serious downfalls.
ReplyDeleteI dont think its worth paying for me. Its said to be dangerous so you could possibly hurt yourself. Plus all it said was an improvement in video games and thats not really worth it. Theres other things you can get better at than a video game.
ReplyDeletei dont think this is a good idea it is extremely dangerous and people that use it think that they need an improvement for themselves this can also be an addiction like drugs for people who want to be better than they already are. which is a negative thing
ReplyDeleteI feel like this is idea could possibly harm people. Also it could possibly kill brain cells maybe possibly even cause more damage than was there before. Besides video games aren't that important and it's an excuse to get "better" at something that probably won't be around in the next decade.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, this just doesn't make any sense. How many subjects were tested? For all we know they could've pulled some people who were better than others at the videogame and say it was because of the batteries.This really just sounds extremely dangerous though, what if the volt doesn't affect the part of the brain that improves your learning? I think there needs to be more evidence shown and more tests run to see if this would really work.
ReplyDeleteI think this article is interesting. Honestly, if this would help people have better performance when doing things such as learning and recreational activities, and they found a safe way to perform the procedure then why not? Id totally have this done. I think more tests are needed to see whether or not its safe though. If its just a video game boost and unsafe, no thanks.
ReplyDeleteI believe that after reading this article I find that this is very strange. I think it is very silly to do all of that just to enhance your brain for things like video games. I think that this would be very harmful for a human being to do. Like if something went wrong, it could damage them permanently. This is very strange and I don't think I would ever have any interest in doing it, although many people might be willing to.
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty cool idea of it actually works. I think it sounds pretty dangerous to hook a battery up to your brain though. There also could be so long term effects it has on your brain that they are not aware of yet. It may be a good temporary solution for some people.
ReplyDelete