Back in the 1780s, this guy - Italian scientist Luigi Galvani - struck dead frogs legs with
an electric spark - and they twitched.
He demonstrated the electrical basis of our nerve impulses.
Now, hundreds of years later, the same direct current technique is being used to supercharge
our brains.
Galvani and Volta, another Italian scientist, debated whether direct current was the spark
of life or if it just triggered the movement of dead muscles.
The scientific community progressed towards team Volta, thinking that electricity triggered
dead muscle movement - not life itself.
The action in the scientific world was mirrored in fiction, with the reanimation of Dr. Frankenstein’s
creature in Mary Shelley’s famous work.
Direct current stimulation continued to be used for therapeutic purposes, like treating
sleep disorders and mental illness.
In recent years, Transcranial direct current stimulation - tDCS for short - has been used
to significantly enhance our working memory and relieve depression.
It works by a constant, low current - think a 9 volt battery - travelling through electrodes
to excite neurons in a specific brain region.
It makes it easier for lots of neurons to fire and boosts your cognitive ability.
In one study, tDCS was used on stroke patients suffering from speech problems.
After the treatment, the patients showed significant improvement in naming common nouns, even after
a retest one week later.
In another study, when researchers applied tDCS to the motor cortex, it raised participants
threshold for pain.
A PET scan showed that following the electrical stimulation, there was an increase in the
release of opioids in the brain, acting as pain killers.
We’re on the brink of a new understanding of our minds - just like when Mary Shelley
wrote Frankenstein and we were on the brink of a new understanding of electricity and
our bodies.
The clinical benefits and applications of tDCS are almost too good to be true.
So much so, that people have starting assembling their own kits at home and stimulating their
brains.
It’s not quite bringing things back to life, but by using a spark of electrical current,
just like Frankenstein did with his or her creature, we’re creating an altered self.
Seriously, don't try this at home.
It’s complicated - to precisely activate the right area comes with lots of experience
and stimulating certain parts of the brain can reduce activity in others.
We don’t know if there are long term risks.
Are we creating modern day monsters?
In a recent study, people were left alone in a room and asked to entertain themselves
with their thoughts - or if they wanted they could give themselves an electric shock during
the thinking period.
Over two thirds of men prefered to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being
left alone with their thoughts.
Perhaps there’s a Dr. Frankenstein in us all.
Speaking of Mary Shelley's famous work, a modern adaptation of frankenstein - frankenstein
MD is a monstrously good new series.
It takes a look at science through the questionable experiments of Victoria frankenstein, MD...
In training.
Click on the annotation to check it out or there's a link in the description.
And subscribe to BrainCraft for a new brainy episode every week.