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Weak at
maths? Try zapping your brain!
Friday November 05, 2010 03:16:13 PM,
IANS
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London:
Jolting the brain with an electric current can make it good or bad
with numbers, depending on the spot where it is applied, study
shows.
Oxford University and University College London students agreed to
having a current passed through their brain while they did
numerical tests.
Passing the current one way through the brain made the students
better with figures - and the effect lasted for up to six months,
according to the Daily Mail.
But running the current the other way made them dramatically
worse, reports the journal Current Biology.
"The opposite configuration led to under-performance, comparable
to that observed in young children or in indigenous tribes with
rudimentary numerical skills," researchers said.
The aim was to find out if it was possible to shock the mind into
becoming better at maths, leading to new treatments for
dyscalculia, or 'number blindness,' the mathematical equivalent of
dyslexia.
Experts said that the ability to 'turn up' and 'turn down' parts
of the brain at will open the door to treating a range of
problems, from dyscalculia to stroke-related visual damage.
But they cautioned that it is not entirely clear how the current
affects the brain. And they questioned whether those given the
'reverse' current were 'still abnormal' months later.
These findings are based on experiments with group of students
aged 20 and 21, who were given two mathematical puzzles almost
daily for a week.
Cohen Kadosh, from University College London, said: "We are not
advising people to go around giving themselves electric shocks,
but we are extremely excited by the potential of our findings and
are now looking into the underlying brain changes."
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