Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Math Skills, Researchers Show

[Elmore Furth]

I can see the next fad to increase math SAT scores.

By applying electrical current to the brain, researchers reporting online on November 4 in Current Biology, have shown that they could enhance a person's mathematical performance for up to 6 months without influencing their other cognitive functions. The findings may lead to treatments for the estimated 20 percent of the population with moderate to severe numerical disabilities (for example, dyscalculia) and for those who lose their skill with numbers as a result of stroke or degenerative disease, according to the researchers.

The researchers used a method of brain stimulation known as transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS). TDCS is a noninvasive technique in which a weak current is applied to the brain constantly over time to enhance or reduce the activity of neurons. The technique has gotten attention in the last decade for its potential to improve various functions in people with neurological deficits, for instance in those who have suffered a stroke.

In the new study, the researchers applied TDCS specifically to the parietal lobe, a portion of the brain that is crucial for numerical understanding. The study participants had normal mathematical abilities but were asked to learn a series of artificial numbers -- symbols that they had never seen before that they were told represented numbers -- while they received the noninvasive brain stimulation. The researchers then tested participants' ability to automatically process the relationship of those artificial numbers to one another and to map them correctly in space using standard testing methods for numerical competence.

The results of the tests showed that the brain stimulation improved study participants' ability to learn the new numbers. and that those improvements lasted 6 months post training.




Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Math Skills, Researchers Show

[Drale]

1. I could use some of that right now

I'm struggling through this stats class Im taking, and Ive never struggled in school.

[txlibdem]

3. This proves that far more brain research is needed

How and why does this work? Why don't people who receive electroshock therapy show similar benefit?

This could open up an entirely new area of brain research. Wow.

[lunamagica]

2. Would it hurt? I think I'd be willing to do it if it doesn't hurt.

I suck at math

[AlecBGreen]

4. very odd!

"The study participants had normal mathematical abilities but were asked to learn a series of artificial numbers -- symbols that they had never seen before that they were told represented numbers -- while they received the noninvasive brain stimulation. The researchers then tested participants' ability to automatically process the relationship of those artificial numbers to one another and to map them correctly in space using standard testing methods for numerical competence."

I wonder why they didnt just have them do standard math (multiplication, addition & subtraction, basic algebra, etc) and then do before-after comparisons of the time it took to solve a number of problems? Seems more straightforward.