Researchers have reportedly accelerated learning by stimulating the brain with specific patterns of electricity:
You can learn how to improve your novice pilot skills by having your brain zapped with recorded brain patterns of experienced pilots via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), according to researchers at HRL Laboratories. "We measured the brain activity patterns of six commercial and military pilots, and then transmitted these patterns into novice subjects as they learned to pilot an airplane in a realistic flight simulator," says Matthew Phillips, PhD.
The study, published in an open-access paper in the February 2016 issue of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, found that novice pilots who received brain stimulation via electrode-embedded head caps improved their piloting abilities, with a 33 percent increase in skill consistency, compared to those who received sham stimulation. "We measured the average g-force of the plane during the simulated landing and compared it to control subjects who received a mock brain stimulation," says Phillips.
"Pilot skill development requires a synthesis of multiple cognitive faculties, many of which are enhanced by tDCS and include dexterity, mental arithmetic, cognitive flexibility, visuo-spatial reasoning, and working memory," the authors note.
The study focused on a working-memory area — the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) — and the left motor cortex (M1), using continuous electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor midline frontal theta-band oscillatory brain activity and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to monitor blood oxygenation to infer neuronal activity. The researchers used the XForce Dream Simulator package from X-Force PC and the X-plane 10 flight simulator software from Laminar Research for flight simulation training.
Previous research has demonstrated that tDCS can both help patients more quickly recover from a stroke and boost a healthy person's creativity; HRL's new study is one of the first to show that tDCS is effective in accelerating practical learning. Phillips speculates that the potential to increase learning with brain stimulation may make this form of accelerated learning commonplace. "As we discover more about optimizing, personalizing, and adapting brain stimulation protocols, we'll likely see these technologies become routine in training and classroom environments," he says. "It's possible that brain stimulation could be implemented for classes like drivers' training, SAT prep, and language learning."
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Modulates Neuronal Activity and Learning in Pilot Training (open, DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00034)
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Electrical brain stimulation may help reduce violent crime in future – study
It could be a shocking way to treat future criminals. Scientists have found that a session of electrical brain stimulation can reduce people's intentions to commit assaults, and raise their moral awareness.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore explored the potential for brain stimulation to combat crime after noting that impairment in a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex has been linked to violent acts.
They recruited 86 healthy adults and gave half of them 20 minutes of brain stimulation before asking the whole group to read two hypothetical scenarios, one describing a physical assault, the other a sexual assault. Immediately afterwards, the participants were asked to rate the likelihood that they might behave as the protagonist had in the stories.
For those who had their brains zapped, the expressed likelihood of carrying out the physical and sexual assaults was 47% and 70% lower respectively than those who did not have brain stimulation. In the first scenario, Chris smashes a bottle over Joe's head for chatting up his girlfriend, and in the second, a night of intimate foreplay leads to date rape.
[...] Using a procedure called transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, [Prof. Olivia] Choy and her colleagues Adrian Raine and Roy Hamilton at the University of Pennsylvania, delivered a 2 milliAmp current to the prefrontal cortex of volunteers to boost the region's activity.
Stimulation of the Prefrontal Cortex Reduces Intentions to Commit Aggression: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Stratified, Parallel-Group Trial (DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3317-17.2018) (DX)
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(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 15 2016, @03:47PM
too bad they couldn't zap them with brain patterns from cooks making a apple pie ...
just wondering if the extra attention paid to them, you know with the briefing about the "brain patten transmit"
and the electrode attaching and all the fancy stuff surrounding the experiment didn't give them newbie pilots
brain a kick all by itself ^_^
(Score: 2) by Max Hyre on Tuesday February 16 2016, @03:47AM
(Score: 1) by Capt. Obvious on Tuesday February 16 2016, @11:39PM
That's what a control group is for. FTFS:
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday February 15 2016, @03:48PM
So did they learn cause they where afraid of getting shocked again, after all they where already novice pilots, or did they learn cause they somehow managed to transfer knowledge from one person to another person via current? Either way when can I expect to be able to copyright and sell my brainwaves before they are beamed into other people ...
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Monday February 15 2016, @07:51PM
I know kung-fu
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Monday February 15 2016, @04:17PM
from what i've read, it seems like what they are doing is encouraging connections be strengthened or created to certain parts of the brain in response to specific stimuli. while interesting, this exceptionally dangerous work because of possible abuse. this is a helper for conditioned responses, so you could effectively reprogram someone to feel a specific emotion from specific stimuli, clockwork orange style.
(Score: 2) by naubol on Monday February 15 2016, @04:20PM
Would you be willing to be a sex slave in exchange for eternal, intense bliss?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Gravis on Monday February 15 2016, @04:34PM
sounds very unproductive. also, eternal? without a brain upload, i won't even survive the death of our star.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday February 15 2016, @04:59PM
meatbags, don't worry about reprogramming. Hollywood and modern education has already fscked up your grandparents' brain, all downhill from there.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday February 15 2016, @05:08PM
Well, good news! Your brain in its natural state is already susceptible to, this just to a lesser degree. This premise underlies a great deal of advertisement.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 15 2016, @05:11PM
From what little I know of TCDCS, it might not matter at all that the "patterns" were recorded from experts... a continuous flat DC stim also can increase focus, concentration, and general piloting skill.
A fun control study would be to also record the patterns of monkeys painting with feces and see which helped the novice pilots more, experienced pilot patterns or monkey poo patterns. I'd hypothesize that both would be better than no stimulation, and likely no difference between the two patterns.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 15 2016, @08:37PM
I like your take on it. The control group got "sham" tDCS, not "undirected" tDCS, whatever that means.
Of course, even if the expert patterns are a waste of time, it's another result that confirms tDCS boosts learning rates.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @08:34AM
Yeah, that is just what I was thinking, too! What are the chances! And if transcranial direct current stimulation works, just think how much more is possible with transcranial alternating current stimulation, just like the electricity we have in our own homes! I am going to hook some up right now so I can pass my algebra exam tomorrow! Just wait a minute. . . ZZzzzzttt!
Carrier lost, LPT1 is on fire.
[Kids, these are professional idiots, do not try this at home! _Mythbuster guys]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 15 2016, @10:06PM
It's not just for breakfast any more. -------=(o \O)=---------
(Score: 1) by turonah on Tuesday February 16 2016, @10:31AM
To echo what others have said: it will be interesting to see if certain patterns do, in fact, encourage learning more than random stimulation or even placebo, but this is an interesting step toward Matrix-like learning.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 16 2016, @12:13PM
This is probably the dark ages compared to what a brain implant and even more invasive computer-to-brain interfacing could accomplish. However a minimally invasive 25% increase in learning speed would see rapid mainstream adoption, and is much further away from NSA brain hacking nightmare scenarios.
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