Electrical brain stimulation helps people learn math faster

[XFMQ902SF]

A harmless form of brain stimulation called transcranial random noise
stimulation (TRNS) can help you learn math faster, researchers report.

“With just five days of cognitive training and noninvasive, painless
brain stimulation, we were able to bring about long-lasting
improvements in cognitive and brain functions,” says Roi Cohen Kadosh
of the University of Oxford.

The enhancements to the speed of calculation- and memory-recall-based
arithmetic learning held for a period of six months after training. No
one knows exactly how TRNS works, but the researchers say the evidence
suggests that it allows the brain to work more efficiently by making
neurons fire more synchronously.

They applied the stimulation to the prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a key
area in arithmetic, and used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) — using
infrared light through the skull — to measure hemodynamic (blood flow)
responses within the prefrontal cortex.

They tested two types of learning: drill learning 9ability to recall
arithmetic
‘‘facts,’’ e.g., 4 x 8 = 32, from memory (rote learning) and
calculation (manipulation of numbers according to set procedures or
algorithms involving one or several mathematical operations (e.g., 32
— 17 + 5 = 20),

Kadosh and his colleagues had shown previously that another form of
brain stimulation called transcranial direct current stimulation
(tDCS) could make people better at learning and processing new
numbers. But, he says, TRNS is even less perceptible to those
receiving it (people get a slight tingling on the scalp with tDCS).

TRNS also has the potential to help more people because it can improve
mental arithmetic — the ability to add, subtract, or multiply a string
of numbers in your head, for example — not just new number learning.
Mental arithmetic is a more complex and challenging task, which more
than 20 percent of people struggle with.

It might also be of particular help to those suffering with
neurodegenerative illness, stroke, or learning difficulties, the
researchers suggest.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/electrical-brain-stimulation-helps-people-learn-math-faster

[jotaro]

i am just mostly curios how does tdcs stand against transcranial random noise
stimulation?

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