All given learning examples are about muscle memory. I.e. maybe it works only good for the cerebellum but not so good for learning other things.
That would not explain the claimed effect on depression
GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
31–40 of 90 posts
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#32As an EE, I was pretty sure I could disprove this, with a quick look at conductivities of bone vs muscle. My theory being that most of the electric current would travel through the scalp, and not pass through the skull to the brain. I found this link, however, which is pretty interesting, that shows conductivities of various tissue types, if anybody is interested. It looks like the skull is not much of an electrical…
If the skull was an insulator it'd make EEG really hard. Not saying EEG is easy, but if you can record brain signals (which are very small) I'd think that dc could be having some effect.
From Wikipedia about EEG:
> A typical adult human EEG signal is about 10µV to 100 µV in amplitude when measured from the scalp and is about 10–20 mV when measured from subdural electrodes.
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#33A cautionary tale. I'm getting a skin graft on Monday after I gave myself 1% full thickness burns with 3 x 9v batteries. I'm a paraplegic and I fell asleep with electrodes on my back so I'd didn't feel anything but awoke to some pretty nasty burns. I completely underestimated the risk of hurting myself.
May I ask about the set-up?
Where both electrodes on your back? Did you use some conductive gel gloop? Was this a dc or an ac signal? Why 3 batteries? Where they in series or parallel?
May I also ask what your device is used for?
Apologies for the interrogation!
(Good Luck with the grafts btw.)
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#34I was about to order the kit for the heck of it, until I saw the "meme picture" on their order page.
I am not going to give my money in exchange for a product I'll trust with my health to a company that thinks "U LEARNED RUBY? Y TAKE SO LONG" is proper/fitting advertisement.
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#35Are the measured effects of tDCS really large enough to outweigh any effects from confirmation bias and statistical anomalies? Were the tests performed double-blind using placebo units?
At the risk of appealing to authority, I have to assume that if DARPA is using it to train snipers, they know it works whether it's due to the tDCS or mental priming as mentioned below. Obviously, from a theoretical standpoint it's important to know why it's working but from a lifehacking/making better snipers/learning Perl/selling $99 tDCS kits standpoint, it doesn't matter how it works, only that it does.
DARPA (and other defence budgets) can fund all kinds of weird stuff.
Reasons range from "it works" through "it's a safe useful placebo" through "it might work" to "it doesn't work, but it'll confuse (and scare) the communists and divert them from our real research."
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#36This is a really interesting idea -- I wonder how many people will be willing to hook their brains into a $99 device. tDCS has also been found to be effective in treating major despression ( http://www.brainstimulation.columbia.edu/doc/journal_club/pa... )
Your link does not say it's effective for treating major depression. Your link does say that it might be effective and deserves further investigation.
They had a tiny sample size of 40 people, split into 3 groups.
I agree that it'd be great if there was a lot more, and better, research into this.
To answer your question: I'd be happy to plug myself into a $99 device, so long as it was built competently.
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#37> It’s not hard to see how tDCS could pose some ethical considerations, though. Only if you're primed by your culture to blanch at transhumanism. > What if some students can afford tDCS kits, but others can’t? What if some students can afford college, computers, calculators, tutoring, study guides, etc. but others can't? This is one of the silliest purported ethical issues I've ever seen, but it consistently gets con…
>What if some students can afford college, computers, calculators, tutoring, study guides, etc. but others can't?
Lots of people worry a great deal about these things as well, and would see tDCS as just another factor on that list, making the whole situation worse.
It doesn't sound exactly expensive though, so the point is kind of moot.
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#38Would be interesting to try this about 5 years after the first batch of users lead the charge. If it has any effect then the side effects would be my first major concern.
If you're a student do a search for tdcs in your libraries online catalog. There's tons of journal articles and studies about it! It's all pretty interesting stuff, just be prepared for lots of phd language..
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#39A cautionary tale. I'm getting a skin graft on Monday after I gave myself 1% full thickness burns with 3 x 9v batteries. I'm a paraplegic and I fell asleep with electrodes on my back so I'd didn't feel anything but awoke to some pretty nasty burns. I completely underestimated the risk of hurting myself.
May I ask about the set-up? Where both electrodes on your back? Did you use some conductive gel gloop? Was this a dc or an ac signal? Why 3 batteries? Where they in series or parallel? May I also ask what your device is used for? Apologies for the interrogation! (Good Luck with the grafts btw.)
Gel-electrodes, 27v DC - clocked at 100ma when I tested it. 27v to get required field strength across the site of my injury, just a back of the envelope guess. Both electrodes on my back 1 above 1 below the site of my injury.
It's a long story but it seems a modest electric field can encourage axon regrowth in damaged spinal cords. Good evidence for this including a phase 1 human trial in 2005 but nothing since. Here is one of the first papers:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cne.902500204/abs...
My arduino controlled device:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/105950978003980827748/posts/hQY2...
Re: GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit
#40> It’s not hard to see how tDCS could pose some ethical considerations, though. Only if you're primed by your culture to blanch at transhumanism. > What if some students can afford tDCS kits, but others can’t? What if some students can afford college, computers, calculators, tutoring, study guides, etc. but others can't? This is one of the silliest purported ethical issues I've ever seen, but it consistently gets con…
What if this allows you to run faster. Should we allow this in Olympics? (I haven't made up my mind yet, but leaning towards a no.)