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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, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @12:07AM
by 110v a/c, automotive ignition systems, charged capacitors, and TENS units. But the worst one of all was an electronic flash for cameras powered by a couple AA batteries. I took it apart while it was still charged, touched the wrong part, and woke up 4 feet from where I was sitting. All OK, except for the taste of aluminum foil in my mouth for a few hours and a few stains on my underoos.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday October 06 2016, @06:15AM
You got your dose of electroconvulsive shock therapy... betcha you make damm sure the capacitors are discharged before you monkey with them now.
Proven Behaviour Modification!
( eh, done similar things myself, thank God none of them involved a Microwave Oven, as few survive the lesson. )
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by justinb_76 on Thursday October 06 2016, @01:09PM
but did it cure your depression?
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Friday October 07 2016, @02:11PM
Yeah, they have large capacitors in 'em that need to be discharged safely, i.e. not through your body. A pointless warning now as you've already found out, but thankfully you're still around to tell the tale. Don't try the same thing on a guitar valve amplifier or you might not be so lucky.