TRNS

TRNS-A New Way to Put on Your Thinking Cap!

Once again I turned to my best blog brainstormer, Arnie, for ideas and here is an excerpt from our TRNS conversation on SKYPE the other day:

[1:24 PM] A Mount: I did discover an interesting article about transcranial random noise stimulation.

[1:24 PM] A Mount: TRNS

[1:24 PM] Jo Mount: Huh?

[1:25 PM] A Mount: They put electrodes on the scalp over areas including the prefrontal cortex and the result was that people who had it did mental calculations twice as fast as the control group.

[1:26 PM] Jo Mount: Wow!

[1:27 PM] A Mount: Their ability to recall arithmetic facts such as times tables improved five-fold and six months later they were still 28% faster than the control group. They think it would be helpful for children with learning difficulties or help to rehabilitate people after a stroke.

[1:28 PM] Jo Mount: I think they better beware or it will be the next chapter in the public school’s standardized test cheating scandal!

[1:28 PM] Jo Mount: Who thinks this stuff up anyway?

[1:28 PM] A Mount: Roi Cohen Kadosh at the University of Oxford and colleagues.

[1:29 PM] Jo Mount: Interesting. New ways to plug into technology at school!

[1:30 PM] A Mount: Absolutely...I was thinking it gives a different meaning to putting on your thinking cap or maybe a way to get "a head of the class."

Hmmm, transcranial random noise stimulation, and not the music from our kids garage band either, but rather a noninvasive technique using strategically placed electrodes in a device worn on the head like a cap that reminded me of the foam curlers I used when I wanted a curly do. I was intrigued so I took a look at the study (via PDF from the June issue of Current Biology) and found out that the results of their study demonstrate that, depending on the learning regime, TRNS can induce long-term enhancement of cognitive and brain functions. After a careful reading of the six page summary I am still unable to identify exactly what the random noise used in the study was but it must have been what the authors were referring to when they discussed what they were doing that was specifically associated with brain activation in response to a given stimulus, the random noise being the stimulus. The cool thing about this study which focused at the behavioral level on the performance of basic arithmetic tasks, are the implications for helping people through cognitive enhancement in both healthy individuals and those suffering from disorders characterized by arithmetic deficits. Teachers take note.