Stimulating the Creative Brain – Morten Friis-Olivarius | PlatoScience

Stimulating the Creative Brain | Morten Friis-Olivarius | TEDxOslo
PlatoScience.com
PlatoWork neurostimulation device manual.

Shown here (from the video) working on the PlatoWork prototype. Note montage which according to the talk, would be focused on increasing creativity. In the video he calls the stimulation TES (Transcranial Electric Stimulation).

“Creative people somehow forget to turn off the spontaneous system while thye’re working on a task”.

A later prototype.

From the manual.

Aha, so there are 3 electrodes. And the placement resembles another study I’m aware of that used tACS to enhance creativity. (Functional role of frontal alpha oscillations in creativity). In that study…

Stimulation electrodes were positioned bilaterally over the frontal cortex (centered on EEG electrode locations F3 and F4) with a common electrodeover the apex (Cz).

But the PlatoScience FAQ clearly states they’re using tDCS.

At PlatoScience we use a version of neurostimulation called tDCS (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation).

So here we have the first (to my knowledge) commercially available (€399) TES device designed specifically to enhance creativity. Interestingly, PlatoScience has a forum and test site (according to the video) where users can discuss their experience. The device is operated via smart phone.

Adam Gazzaley | Wisdom Labs Podcast

Source: WW009 – “Could Video Game Technology Solve the Global Cognition Crisis?” – with Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD

Adam Gazzaley and Parneet Pal, Chief Science Officer of Wisdom Labs, discuss the challenges of the modern world for our ancient brains, how to become aware of, and overcome, the interference of distraction and multitasking, and the new era of digital medicine. Conversation includes: The critical elements of what it means to be human, ethical design of technology, the cascading effect of cognitive challenges, and harnessing neuroplasticity through experience to develop stronger brains…

The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World by Adam Gazzaley (Amazon link)

Akili, the business end of Gazzaley’s research aims to build ‘experiential treatments’, delivered through video games, “…as medicine–as prescribable, reimbursable medicine, right up there with pharmaceuticals”. The patent is not for a video game, the patent is for a game engine… Akili now has a dozen studies going on across multiple clinical conditions. From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to Traumatic Brain Injury to anxiety to Autism, depression, early Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis… The study which has garnered the most attention was the completion of our Phase 3 trial for Pediatric ADHD… What was shown was that we were able to significantly, with a reasonable effect size, improve attention ability in children with ADHD. Now advancing an application to the FDA for their class 2 medical device for the treatment of inattention in children with ADHD.

If we’re successful, it will be the first non-drug treatment for ADHD. The first prescribable video game, and the first of a new category of medicine that we think of as digital medicine, to treat a host of different conditions of the mind.