Electrocuting Yourself To Get Smarter

Remember, dear regular readers, back in April when I reported that scientists had induced a mild current in someone's head while they tried to do complicated tasks? It turned out that their memory but more importantly people showed faster rates of learning.

Now those results have been repeated by a group in England. They isolated a section of the brain that contributed to math skills and applied a mild current while the volunteers practiced math. Turns out the volunteers had enhanced memory. Turns out that enhanced memory lasted for months:

"This isn't going to turn you into a genius," says Cohen Kadosh, "but it could be turned into a device to help children with poor numeracy skills improve their mathematical abilities".

How long until this is a consumer device? How long until poor parents complain that rich kids are benefitting from this technology and their children aren't?


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