REAL LIFE IMITATES SCIENCE FICTION: GIVING THE BRAIN ELECTRIC SHOCKS MAY HELP LEARNING
by Hazed
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to learn new skills without having to put in 10,000 hours of tedious practice. Science fiction has tackled the subject of enhanced learning many times and the solutions have been many and varied: using pills, hypnosis, sleep learning or applying electricity to the brain.
It’s the latter method that could now become a reality, because the US military’s mad scientist division DARPA has teamed up with seven American universities to test whether electrically stimulating the brain will increase the ability to learn new skills.
The program, called Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT), uses the ability of the brain to build new neural pathways to absorb knowledge – synaptic plasticity is the technical name.
The idea is that by stimulating the nerves that connect neurons in the brain and spinal cord to the organs, skin and muscles, the brain could be trained to learn new skills more quickly. DARPA plan to try both non-invasive electrical stimulation, and implanted devices, to see which works better. The goal is to develop a device which works on skin nerves to get the brain into overdrive.
The initial study will also include a mapping process on the brain, to understand how we learn foreign languages, enabling soldiers to become fluent in other tongues a lot quicker than is possible now.
Sounds interesting, although the idea of allowing the government to give your brain electric shocks is a bit freaky!
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/28/electric_stimulation_peoples_brains_promotes_learning/
