Scientists have made people more creative using electrical stimulation

[G_j]

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-made-people-more-creative-using-electrical-stimulation

FIONA MACDONALD17 APR 2015

For the first time, scientists have managed to use non-invasive electrical stimulation to boost people’s creativity by an average of 7.4 percent. This is the first evidence that brain stimulation can trigger specific behavioural changes, and suggests that the same method could be used to treat depression.

Publishing their results in the journal Cortex, a team from the University of North Carolina in the US used a low dose of electrical current to enhance brain waves called alpha oscillations, which naturally occur when someone is day-dreaming. Creativity was then assessed using a well-validated and common test called the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, where participants are given a small fragment of an illustration and asked complete it (think a more scientific Mr Squiggle). But making us better versions of ourselves isn’t the end goal of this research.

"This study is a proof-of-concept," said senior author Flavio Frohlich in a press release. "We've provided the first evidence that specifically enhancing alpha oscillations is a causal trigger of a specific and complex behaviour - in this case, creativity. But our goal is to use this approach to help people with neurological and psychiatric illnesses."

..more..

[CentralMass]

1. Flavio Frohlich ?

[NYC_SKP]

2. You might enjoy this episode of Radiolab from NPR about low level current and the brain.

Transcranial Direct Current... Lots of people are doing this on their own.

[CentralMass]

3. Thanks, this isvery interesting. I have a daughter studying neurobiology and i fowarded this to her.

[Trillo]

4. Here come the cy-borgs.

Electrical enhancements. Eventually, if you don't get wired up, you'll be considered a mere animal. There will be animals, cyborgs, and robots.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. If I stick a fork in an outlet will I then be able to write the Great American Novel?

Probably not...

[bmbmd]

6. Old news....