Solid Advice on Selecting foc.us tDCS and Accessories | SpeakWisdom

Brent Williams of SpeakWisdom shares his thoughts on the Foc.us v2 device along with his recommendations for electrodes.

The V2 Brain Stimulation Device

First, you will need a foc.us V2 stimulator device. They currently sell for about $199 and with current firmware are far beyond any of their competition in terms of versatility, capability, portability, etc. I won’t take time here to list all of the MANY things the V2 can do, but suffice it to say that manufacturers of “professional grade” tDCS, tACS, etc. equipment are probably nervous about where foc.us is driving prices and capabilities! In my opinion, the V2 is THE brain stimulation device to buy at its price point.

Source: Solid Advice on Selecting foc.us tDCS and Accessories

Time to Take Another Look At foc.us tDCS and more | SpeakWisdom


It’s a Software World Now!
If you purchase a V2 (or own one now), you may wish to update its firmware periodically to take advantage of new features. Here are some key steps:

  1. Go to the foc.us web site and create an account: https://www.foc.us/customer/account/login/
  2. Log in with the account
  3. Connect your V2 doc to your capable PC (or Mac)
  4. On the left of your screen (once logged in), select “My Downloadable Products”
  5. Click the “Microsoft Software” (or Mac) download button and install
  6. Run the installed application and allow it to check and upgrade your V2 to the latest firmware

Source: Time to Take Another Look At foc.us tDCS and more | SpeakWisdom

Inside the Strange New World of DIY Brain Stimulation | Magazine | WIRED

Nicely done! Brent Williams in Wired magazine.

Williams is one of its leaders. The treatments have made a huge difference in his life, he says. He retains more information from the tedious journal articles he has to read for work, and he feels more creative. On his blog, SpeakWisdom, he posts technically detailed reviews of stimulation devices and cheerfully gives advice to anyone considering trying it for the first time. He’s got lots of company. A subreddit devoted to the practice has nearly 4,000 subscribers who actively follow the scientific research and share tips on where to place the electrodes on your head if, say, you’re depressed, too impulsive, or just want to amp up your creativity.

Williams is spreading the brain-zapping idea closer to home too. He has built brain stimulators for his wife (he couldn’t keep the secret very long) and several friends and acquaintances. All in all, he has persuaded at least a dozen people to give it a try. One says she’s gone off antidepressants for the first time in 20 years. Another says brain stimulation is helping him get his ADD under control. Several ambitious middle-­aged professionals say the devices have boosted their memory and focus.

via Inside the Strange New World of DIY Brain Stimulation | Magazine | WIRED.

SpeakWisdom | Wisdom for the Leading Edge of Life

Dr. Brent Williams of Speak Wisdom recently published an article, ‘Roadmap to tDCS Success’ which outlines his perspective on using tDCS. (Link at bottom to full article.)

This article is designed to provide a roadmap to successful and safe use of tDCS and so points to a number of references that should be reviewed before any attempt at using tDCS is made. If you will carefully examine the items listed below, you will be much better informed as you make decisions about tDCS and its appropriateness for you and your situation.

1. What is tDCS and How Does it Work?

If you want to understand tDCS and what it is all about, you have to dig a little.Start with the basics: http://speakwisdom.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/can-a-9-volt-battery-save-a-life-even-yours/

Please watch this video: Prof. Vince Clark from UC Davis tDCS Summit 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUMUIXNeBRQ

Then read this article (it’s a bit dense, but get what you can): Transcranial DC Stimulation by Dave Siever, CET: https://www.mindalive.com/1_0/article%2011.pdf

You should also review these safety standards: tDCS Safety Standards: http://speakwisdom.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/diy-tdcs-code-of-safety/

via SpeakWisdom | Wisdom for the Leading Edge of Life ™.

Enter the Biocurrent Kit | Speak Wisdom

www.biocurrentkit.com has just started offering a battery operated 1 to 2 mA kit that is offered not as a tDCS device (tDCS doesn’t even appear in their instruction sheet and barely on the web site), but as a regulated very low current DC supply. What you do with it is up to you. Biocurrent sent me an evaluation unit to dig into and I have to say, I’m impressed with the simplicity of the kit – and that it does exactly what Biocurrent says it will do – supply 1, 1.5, or 2 mA current.

via SpeakWisdom | Speak Wisdom.

Weekend tDCS Insights – Chi & Snyder, SpeakWisdom, Carlo Miniussi

Some very excellent tDCS-related documents came to my attention over the weekend. I’m pretty sure I’d looked for at least one of them before, but that it was behind a paywall. I’ll provide links to the pdfs here, but suggest that (as has happened elsewhere on the blog) pdf links frequently go bad so ‘get em while they’re hot’.

Brain stimulation enables the solution of an inherently difficult problem (pdf)
This is the paper by Alan Snyder and Richard Chi that is frequently referenced in ‘unlock your inner savant’ articles on various pop-sci sites. (See also) Spoiler alert! Gives the answer to the ‘9 dot’ problem and once you’ve seen it it will be impossible to discover how ‘savant-like’ you are (at least according to this test).

ninedot …we applied cathodal tDCS (1.6mA) at the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) together with anodal tDCS at the right ATL for approximately 10 min… None of the 22 participants in the main experiment solved the nine-dot problem before stimulation. But with 10 min of right lat- eralizing transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), we found that more than 40% of participants could do so.

speakWisdomTakeapartDr. Brent Williams, at his SpeakWisdom blog, published another excellent tDCS post updating his DIY device, and adding a .doc that outlines his recommended (For Discussion) protocols for depression, ‘Savant Learning’, memorization, and chronic pain.
His protocol describes directions for use with either his ‘User-Built tDCS Research Device’, or the ActivaDose II.

Transcranial Magnetic and Electric Stimulation in Perception and Cognition Research (pdf)
This is a fascinating paper (Carlo Miniussi et al) that brings us up to date (2012) on applications of tDCS, TMS tACS (transcranial alternating current), and tRNS (transcranial random noise stimulation), especially in relation to cognition and learning. What really caught my eye was this entry about tRNS…

 tRNS consists of the application of a random electrical oscillation spectrum over the cortex. tRNS can be applied at different frequency band ranges over the entire spectrum from 0.1 to 640 Hz…They applied tRNS to the visual cortices of healthy subjects and observed a significant improvement in the performance of healthy subjects in a visual perceptual learning task. This improvement was significantly higher than the improvement obtained with anodal tDCS…

And that folks, is how a weekend disappears down the rabbit hole!