(But don't try this at home)
9-Volt Battery Wikimedia Commons
Neuroscientists at the University of New Mexico asked volunteers to play a video game called “DARWARS Ambush!”, developed to help train American military personnel. Half of the players received 2 milliamps of electricity to the scalp, using a device powered by a simple 9-volt battery, and they played twice as well as those receiving a much tinier jolt. The DARPA-funded study suggests direct current applied to the brain could improve learning.
This type of brain stimulation, called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), is controversial but could show promise for treatment of various neurological disorders and cognitive impairments. Click through to Nature News for a thorough overview.
It’s different from transcranial magnetic stimulation, in which a magnetic coil running at high voltage is positioned close to the head. The magnets stimulate electrical responses in the brain. Transcranial direct current stimulation is just what it sounds, applying the current directly to the brain.
We’ve been hearing quite a lot about these methods lately, and the scientific literature indicates the fields — tDCS in particular — are experiencing a revival, Nature News points out. Scientists hope the methods could be used to treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, stroke and autism, as well as to improve learning by increasing the brain’s plasticity.
Researchers are beginning to understand how an external electrical current affects brain function, including by inducing changes to the flow of electricity across neurons and increasing the expression of certain synapse proteins.
Apparently, it takes very little electricity to do all this. But please, don’t start hooking up 9-volt batteries to your brain — leave that to the scientific studies.
That's weirdly interesting. But does it not hurt when they shoot it through your head? Doesn't it depends on the person's brain on whether not they improve or not? Why did they use DARWARS Ambush!" Why not something else? Why did they test it for only video games? Who even thought about putting 9-volt battery to your head? Weird people man.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly interesting is right. I don't think I would try this at home anyway.The reason I play video games is not only to have fun but to challenge myself. Sometimes technology or "scientific studies" takes away from not only the learning experience but also the ability to achieve something solely using your brain. In all its better to say you passed level fifty-nine on where's my water after your sixtieth try than say" I passed level nine on where's my water using a nine volt battery attached to my head".
ReplyDeleteI don't think I would use this myself for video game purposes since I am not a big fan of video games. But, I think it would be cool if it could help people with depression, post traumatic stress disorder, stroke, and autism. Have any real tests been done to see if it can really help with those? How do they test to see if it really works for improvement on video games? In what ways can this harm you? What does it feel like to be zapped?
ReplyDeleteOk... this sounds really painful. Are people really that into games to risk their brain functions for video games? I wouldn't personally do it because I believe that it would cause brain disorders and brain damage. But whatever. Will the future consider getting zapped to improve video gaming skills?
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest, all of this quite scares me. In my opinion, yes- this world is trying new ways to fix the world's problems, but in reality, isn't it making matters worse? I mean, sure all this technology may help stimulate our brains and give us quite a booster, but what if further down the road something bad happens to the brain that had the 9-volt battery experiment done? Causing the brain to actually mess up, more than improve.
ReplyDeleteI'm going home right away to try this. Just playing! Who thought that it was a smart idea to shock themselves to do better in videogames. I would never try this unless they paid me.
ReplyDeleteI think to be myself a gamer and a pretty decent one but to shock you self is pretty insane if you have to ask me. It's just stupid why would it matter if ur better at video games, and maybe the game they played was really easy. But what I don't get is how they didn't mention the age of the volunteers. Maybe if they were older the had slower reaction time which made then a bad player. I just think this is uncalled for.
ReplyDeleteTo me the whole idea of shocking yourself to become a better video gamer is really uncalled for. What are the long-term effects? Honestly I think whoever came up with the idea that shocking themselves would make them better needs to rethink this idea. Is it really that serious that you would go to such lengths to play videogames better?
ReplyDeleteI'm concerned about the long term effects of this method. I think the reasoning for video games is stupid but the treatment for disorders, autism, etc. could be very useful and a cool future reality. I think they should have people test the long term effectd before they start using this method on people.
ReplyDeleteIt seems oddly interesting. Would you feel the zap? Would it hurt? What would be the long term effects be? It could make you smarter for a short time, and then effect your brain negatively after a week, month, or year.
ReplyDeleteI dont like the beginning of the article, not the mid-section. But I really do like the ending how they were actually going to use that method for reasonable health causes. Scientist could put this method into use after further investigations and more testing with different ages and different parts of the body. But overall, I Didn't like the article due to the stupid idea of it making you a better video game player. But yes for medical researches, it would be such a good idea.
ReplyDeletei like the fact that this technique can help health issues. this also sounds painful. I always have the thought that this kinda of things, have a different reaction on each individual. science is very interesting though.
ReplyDeleteJust reading that hurt my head. In all honesty here, I think this whole idea was a mistake. Shocking your brain just so you can be better at video games is helping no one. This may have a serious long term effect that we don't know about. I personally would not try this even if they paid me because I would be too afraid that something could go seriously wrong. I want to know who thought this was a good idea and why the first person to be tested on volunteered themselves.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. In retrospect this seems like a good idea. But the real concern is long term effects. It could be cool when you first start using it. However after awhile the effects might not be worth it.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds kind of interesting but somewhat dangerous at the same time. I think that there would definitely be long term effects that they are not telling us about. I just dont think that anything that could happen because of this would be worth it.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting, what happens but i find this very dangerous. i would never let someone i know do that. It seems like it would end up damaging the brain long term.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this could be used for things other than gaming. Could this actually be used in the field of academics maybe to help someone study and do better on tests. I personally wouldn't mind trying such a thing if I had the right people there to help me.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think this is a very stupid idea to even try from the beginning, and only trying it to become a better gamer at that is even worse. As a person with a lot of medical problems, I think if there were other long term studies showing that this actually helped improve medical issues, it would be a very interesting idea. But, even with other studies I still think there would be some long term effects that nobody would ever know about. I would never do this, it still would always seem very dangerous. If people did ever actually use this for a medical reason, I would think/want them to be monitored VERY closely long term.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this can and will cause more problems instead of helping them. I think it's crazy that people are volunteering to be apart of this. Who cares if it can make you better at video games?? I think its stupid and isn't a good idea AT ALL. They shouldn't be testing this on people without knowing what can happen and what kind of long term consequences it could have.
ReplyDeletethese people are stupid. why would you hook up electric to your head? then for the only reason is to help you play a game? if people would use if for something useful it might would be different. but just for a game! these people need a life.
ReplyDeleteThis is dumb. Seems like shocking your brain with a 9 volt battery would harm you in the long run. People could just simply learn to play a game rather than finding other tactics. Why would anyone ever do this?
ReplyDeleteHow do you randomly come up with this? Is this even safe? Has anyone died from this? I most definitely would not sign up to be apart of this experiment.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea and the fact they're trying to make up new ideas to help people with depression, post traumatic stress disorder, autism, etc., but in the long run I don't think this would be such a good idea. it's one thing for this to help people play video games better, but to treat diseases? I think that's a big jump. I think with this kind of "treatment" there is bound to be some kind of long term effects to the brain.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an inventive idea, but also a weird one. It seems like it would be unsafe but as long as scientists know what they are doing in the subject an have done their bookwork, then you should be ok. All it is really doing is mimicking the electronic signals your brain sends to manipulate your what you do and how you perform.
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