"Amping Up Brain Function: Transcranial Stimulation Shows Promise in Speeding Up Learning"
Gwern Branwen
"Amping Up Brain Function: Transcranial Stimulation Shows Promise in
Speeding Up Learning"
"Electrical stimulation of subjects' brains is found to accelerate
learning in military and civilian subjects, although researchers are
yet wary of drawing larger conclusions about the mechanism"
> So Air Force researchers were delighted recently to learn that they could cut training time in half by delivering a mild electrical current (two milliamperes of direct current for 30 minutes) to pilot's brains during training sessions on video simulators. The current is delivered through EEG (electroencephalographic) electrodes placed on the scalp. Biomedical engineer Andy McKinley and colleagues at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright–Patterson Air Force Base, reported their finding on this so-called transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) here at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting on November 13.
>
> "I don't know of anything that would be comparable," McKinley said, contrasting the cognitive boost of TDCS with, for example, caffeine or other stimulants that have been tested as enhancements to learning. TDCS not only accelerated learning, pilot accuracy was sustained in trials lasting up to 40 minutes. Typically accuracy in identifying threats declines steadily after 20 minutes. Beyond accelerating pilot training, TDCS could have many medical applications in the military and beyond by accelerating retraining and recovery after brain injury or disease.
> So Air Force researchers were delighted recently to learn that they could cut training time in half by delivering a mild electrical current (two milliamperes of direct current for 30 minutes) to pilot's brains during training sessions on video simulators. The current is delivered through EEG (electroencephalographic) electrodes placed on the scalp. Biomedical engineer Andy McKinley and colleagues at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright–Patterson Air Force Base, reported their finding on this so-called transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) here at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting on November 13.
>
> "I don't know of anything that would be comparable," McKinley said, contrasting the cognitive boost of TDCS with, for example, caffeine or other stimulants that have been tested as enhancements to learning. TDCS not only accelerated learning, pilot accuracy was sustained in trials lasting up to 40 minutes. Typically accuracy in identifying threats declines steadily after 20 minutes. Beyond accelerating pilot training, TDCS could have many medical applications in the military and beyond by accelerating retraining and recovery after brain injury or disease.
Myelin again:
> An expert on brain imaging, Robert Turner of the Department of Neurophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig, Germany, who was not involved in the study, speculated that the changes detected by DTI could represent an increase in insulation on the fibers (myelin) that would speed transmission of information through the fibers. "In my present view, the leading hypothesis for the observed rapid changes…is that previously unmyelinated axonal fibers within white matter become rapidly myelinated when they start to carry frequent action potentials," he says. There are, however, several other possible explanations, he cautions.
(I would emphasize the 'previously unmyelinated' part. Reminds me of
various chemicals that have been played around for improving memory,
that temporarily boost indiscriminate recollection.)
> People with paralyzed limbs can be taught to control a robotic glovelike device that will move their fingers in response to the patient's own thoughts. Electrodes on the person's scalp pick up brain waves as the person imagines moving his or her hand. The brain waves are analyzed by a computer to control the robotic artificial hand. But learning to generate the proper brain waves to control the artificial hand through thought alone requires considerable training. Witkowski found that if patients received 20 minutes of TDCS stimulation once during five days of training, they learned to control the hand with their thoughts much more rapidly.
>
> The new studies reported at this meeting suggest that there is far more to speed learning produced by TDCS than can be explained by the placebo effect. And the evidence now shows that TDCS produces physical changes in the brain's structure as well as physiological changes in its response. TDCS increases cortical excitability, which can be measured in recordings of brain waves, and it also causes changes in the structure of the brain's connections that can be observed on an MRI. By using electricity to energize neural circuits in the cerebral cortex, researchers are hopeful that they have found a harmless and drug-free way to double the speed of learning.
Colin Dickerman
could cut training time in half"
In half?! Holy crap
On Nov 25, 5:00 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=amping-up-brain-func...
γενβιρΟ
Do you know off the top of your head whether this research been
applied to people that experience learning disorders?
On Nov 26, 12:00 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=amping-up-brain-func...
Gwern Branwen
>
> Do you know off the top of your head whether this research been
> applied to people that experience learning disorders?
Nope. (I just quickly googled, and the first 3 hits were all studies
mentioning that the subjects had no history of disorders. Drat.)
Also, so this isn't a one-liner, I have posted a summary of my recent
work on and additions to my site:
http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/8kv/recent_updates_to_gwernnet/
--
gwern
http://www.gwern.net
whoisbambam
would be nice to know the two electrode locations and electrode size
of each
i have a tdcs device and eeg cap
On Nov 25, 8:37 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2011/11/25 γενβιρΟ <carsthatdr...@hotmail.com>:
γενβιρΟ
I'm going to do some fishing tomorrow, I'll mention something if I
find anything worthwhile.
whoisbambam,
I'm working on similar questions myself, so I'll let you know if
anything turns up.
On Nov 26, 1:37 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2011/11/25 γενβιρΟ <carsthatdr...@hotmail.com>:
starea...@yahoo.com
The question we should be asking is "How can I get my hands on one of
these machines?"
Does anyone know how to make one or know of a website that sells these
cus I can't find any.
On Nov 25, 8:00 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=amping-up-brain-func...
whoisbambam
do searches for whoisbambam tdcs and expand the threads
On Nov 26, 2:32 am, "stareatst...@yahoo.com" <stareatst...@yahoo.com>
wrote: