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From the do-taze-me-bro dept.
An article over at Medical Xpress details study results published on 4 October, 2016 in Nature Scientific Reports [Full paper], from a group of neuroscientists investigating the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), using MRI imaging.
From the Medical Xpress article:
Rather than taking medication, a growing number of people who suffer from chronic pain, epilepsy and drug cravings are zapping their skulls in the hopes that a weak electric current will jolt them back to health.
This brain hacking—"transcranial direct current stimulation" (tDCS)—is used to treat neurological and psychiatric symptoms. A do-it-yourself community has sprouted on Reddit, providing unconventional tips for how to use a weak electric current to treat everything from depression to schizophrenia. People are even using commercial tDCS equipment to improve their gaming ability. But tDCS is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and scientists are split on its efficacy, with some calling it quackery and bad science.
Here's the issue: Until now, scientists have been unable to look under the hood of this do-it-yourself therapeutic technique to understand what is happening. Danny JJ Wang, a professor of neurology at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, said his team is the first to develop an MRI method whereby the magnetic fields induced by tDCS currents can be visualized in living humans. Their results were published Oct. 4 in Scientific Reports, a Nature Publishing Group journal.
"Although this therapy is taking off at the grassroots level and in academia [with an exponential increase in publications], evidence that tDCS does what is being promised is not conclusive," said Wang, the study's senior author. "Scientists don't yet understand the mechanisms at work, which prevents the FDA from regulating the therapy. Our study is the first step to experimentally map the tDCS currents in the brain and to provide solid data so researchers can develop science-based treatment."
People in antiquity used electric fish to zap away headaches, but tDCS, as it is now known, was introduced in 2000, said Mayank Jog, study lead author and a graduate student conducting research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Since then, this noninvasive, easy-to-use, low-cost technology has been shown to improve cognition as well as treat clinical symptoms," Jog said.
So what say you, Soylentils? Ready to cut that electrical cord, plug it into the wall and stick it in your ear? I'm sure there are quite a few who'd be willing to assist!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 05 2016, @09:20PM
The DC in "transcranial direct current stimulation" (tDCS) is not what comes out of the wall.
tACS maybe?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 05 2016, @09:28PM
In other news, this article reminded me to submit this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/05/its-not-in-your-head-striking-new-study-links-birth-control-to-depression/ [washingtonpost.com]
http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2552796 [jamanetwork.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday October 06 2016, @06:04AM
These guys are doing something similar. [nexalin.com] Theirs is a special AC waveform. No DC.
( Note: I would warn one about continuous application of DC to living tissue: Electrolysis. It will cause a migration of ions of one charge under one pad, and the other charge under the other pad. The concentration of these ions will interact with the living tissue and make a nasty rash. Personal experience here... learned that one empirically while trying to build an electronic muscle stimulator/back pain reliever about 30 years ago. I did build the stimulator, and it worked well, but I did learn a lot about putting an inductor in the line and using inductive kickback to make the pulse, and capacitively coupling the pulse to the pad. It took a couple of pulse-forming LC networks to shape the kickback spike into something that was not painful. I noted the thing worked great for pain relief, but I could not discuss it where I worked, as my co-workers thought it was hilarious I was deliberately shocking myself and I brought a lot of mirth down on myself at the workplace by even bringing the subject up. It is still my belief the thing worked for the same reason massaging and rubbing a painful area works.... it stimulates all of the receptors so that the resultant "noise" drowns out the pain reception. I found some frequencies/waveforms are quite pleasant to the feel. Of course, today, this concept is all over the place, and generated from "class-D" methods instead of the primitive LC pulse shapers I was using. If I had known how to properly present this to management thirty years ago, I believe we would have been all filthy rich today. )
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]