At Oxford University an interesting experiment was performed on some humans that involved electricity and their brains!
That’s right, they decided to shock people with electricity in the head while they performed mathematical exercises.
The scientists wanted to do a real verifiable study so they didn’t just do this on one person but on 51 students. The electrical current was only a light one so no one felt a jolt.
While these students underwent mathematical training along with electrical brain therapy they were much more capable of remembering new sums, recalling times tables faster and other math tasks compared to those who did not go through the therapy.
One interesting side effect was the ability to calculate sums about 30 % quicker and this same result was the same when they were retested 6 months later.
So if you feel you have limited mathematical abilities like I do myself then start looking for a helmet looking device on eBay that can send some light electrical impulses through your brain.
Seriously don’t go and do that, I am only joking. This research does offer someone like me some promising therapy in the future for when I can finally say I passed pre-calculus.
This therapy may provide a safe and affordable solution to improve people’s math with little other methods needed. If it can work on University guinea pigs it must be able to work on someone like me.
Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh, of Oxford University’s department of experimental psychology truly believes they are on to something here so look out world we may see an army of students wearing electrodes on their heads in the future.
Think about this for a minute. This experiment only lasted 5 days but with it the students received long-lasting improvements in cognitive and brain functions.
Electricity obviously plays a tremendous role in how smart people are and with an added jolt for those people who don’t generate as much electrical brain impulses we could eliminate the 1 in 5 statistic of those who struggle with basic arithmetic.
In summary we are finding ways to awaken the part of the brain that is almost dead for some people. Scientists don’t really know why the therapy works but they believe it may be increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the brain.
Don’t try this experiment at home but FYI the participants were given 45 minutes of math training and 20 minutes of electrical stimulation to the part of the brain involved in mathematical processing.
The jump in learning was about 5 times faster when it came to times-tables and about twice as quick at learning arithmetic.
Questions abound about if it is ethical or cheating but if it is available for anyone to use than scientists believe that it’s going to be okay.
Most countries have a new goal in mind for electricity. Around the world countries are expecting to be able to store electricity to use during peak demand times which is a new concept as around the world we currently rely on a real-time electric grid.
