Electric brain stimulation could improve brain injuryRSS Feed

Applying electrical currents to the brain can improve an individual's maths abilities for up to six months, new research has found.

Scientists at Oxford University believe that these findings could help people with dyscalculia, which is an inability to comprehend mathematics that can sometimes be caused by brain injury.

Fifteen student volunteers were taught symbols which represented various numerical values and were then timed as they completed a series of puzzles involving these symbols.

They were given either a placebo or a low electrical shock from the right to the left or the left to the right across the parietal lobe.

Individuals who received right to left electrical stimuli reached a high level of performance whereas those with left to right stimulation were seen to underperform.

The control tests demonstrated that the effect did not impact further cognitive functions, but was limited to the learned symbols.

Dr Cohen Kadosh of Oxford University's Department of Experimental Psychology said: "We are not advising people to go around giving themselves electric shocks, but we are extremely excited by the potential of our findings and are now looking into the underlying brain changes."

This comes after it was revealed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, that if the section of the brain responsible for memory or attention suffers brain injury, other parts of the brain will step in to fulfil the role when needed.

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Posted by Timothy Walters
 

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