There’s been a lot of attention to the Halo Neuroscience device, much of it around use by olympic-level athletes. Halo Sport is a VC-backed tDCS device that targets the Motor Cortex. We’ve covered it previously elsewhere on the blog.
US Olympic track star out to prove Halo Sport headphones make him faster, stronger
The Brain-Zapping Olympians
Olympic Athletes Try Zapping Their Brains to Boost Performance
For the first time, UNC School of Medicine scientists report using transcranial alternating current stimulation, or tACS, to target a specific kind of brain activity during sleep and strengthen memory in healthy people.
Flavio Frohlich, PhD
Full Story: No dream: electric brain stimulation during sleep can boost memory
Paper: Feedback-Controlled Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Reveals a Functional Role of Sleep Spindles in Motor Memory Consolidation
So since you only have one brain, we sort of want to caution people to wait for the research to catch up with all the hype.
Neuroscientist Matthew Krause
Full story: Can zapping your brain be beneficial?
Anna Wexler is a Ph.D. candidate in the HASTS Program (History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society) at MIT. Her dissertation focuses on the ethical, social and regulatory implications of consumer non-invasive brain stimulation. She is currently a 2015-2016 visiting scholar at the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2007, Anna graduated from MIT with two Bachelors’ of Science degrees, one in Brain and Cognitive Science and the other in Humanities and Science with a focus in Writing.
Papers of Anna’s we discuss.
A pragmatic analysis of the regulation of consumer transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) devices in the United States
The practices of do-it-yourself brain stimulation: implications for ethical considerations and regulatory proposals (Paywall)
“Medical Batteries”
The Practice of Medical Electricity: Showing the Most Approved Apparatus, Their Methods of Use, and Rules for the Treatment of Nervous Diseases, More Especially Paralysis and Neuralgia
Harvard Law Professor Peter Barton Hutt
Sally Adee Better Living Through Electrochemistry 2/9/2012 Her blog version of the New Scientist article (now paywalled).
GoFlow FlowStateEngaged.com (2012 Archive.org)
Radiolab 9-Volt Nirvana 6/26/2014
Elif Batuman Electrified 4/6/2015 New Yorker
The challenge of crafting policy for do-it-yourself brain stimulation
Nicholas S Fitz, Peter B Reiner
General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices – Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff (PDF – 550KB)
The FDA doesn’t want to regulate wearables, and device makers want to keep it that way (The Verge)
There are a few more tDCS-related videos on Alex’s YT Channel but I thought these wereboth very interesting. Starting with what didn’t work, and followed by what worked for him.
Luciding is now taking pre-orders for the LucidCatcher. (Lots more on this site about lucid dreaming). Like much of the tDCS research, studies report conflicting results using tACS to induce lucid dreaming. Note that Foc.us has had a 40 Hz tACS mode built into their V2 device and also has a lucid dreaming kit. It’s been out long enough now that I would think that widespread success with using it to induce lucid dreams would have been widely reported. The LucidCatcher does come in a form factor optimized for sleeping. I’m curious to know more about the unusual electrode setup.
How does it work?
We typically see the dreams during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phase. The device detects your REM and pushes mild electric impulses to the prefrontal cortex at a frequency of 40 Hz. It brings the logical brain back into service and makes you realize that you must be in a dream.
You’ll recognize the dream by millions of different signs that contradicts the reality because your consciousness evokes.
See also: Today in crazy cool: You can use this headband to control your dreams
I was happy to lend Nathan my Thync. I knew he’d get to the bottom of what exactly was going on. Especially in the context of exploring TES, pulsed wave forms and some of the older technologies I’d recently been made aware of in my interview with Anna Wexler, I knew the Thync device would represent the state of the art. Jamie Tyler had arranged for me to have one, most likely in my capacity as a blogger and reporter of all things related to neurostimulation. I myself did not experience any significant effects using the Thync though I did find myself using it frequently – mostly the Calm vibe. Was there some effect lying just below consciousness that my body was reacting to? Certainly nothing like the experience Manoush Zomorodi had trying Thync for her podcast episode Forget Edibles: Getting High on Wearables (really a must hear).
Check out Nathan’s full analysis of the Thync device. The Science and Technology Behind Thync’s Brain(?) Stimulator
Focus has posted a new page on their site which directs new users to show caution in their use of DIY tDCS. Focus goes so far as to caution people under the age of 18 not to try it.
If you are under 18 you should stop here. tDCS is not suitable for children and should not be used. This is because your brain is still developing and you don’t need to mess with its neuroplasticity.
The page goes on to list the known risks and a few benefits. Interestingly, it does not mention depression. I would have to imagine due to the possibility of crossing that nebulous regulatory line around ‘medical devices’.
Focus is, as I understand it, in the midst of fulfilling orders for their GoFlow device. You can read a full review of the GoFlow on SpeakWisdom, the (primarily) tDCS-related site authored by Dr. Brent Williams. Go Flow Pro, Nice Brain Stimulation Kit!
New Go Flow Pro package.
Memory has always fascinated me and it’s thrilling to be alive at a time when breakthroughs in our understanding of memory are happening so frequently. I had never heard of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory before catching a recent (this will slip behind a paywall in a week or so) This American Life episode that features Jill Price discussing how having the extremely rare condition, HSAM for short, has left her ruminating over her husbands passing for years. (More about Jill Price from 60 Minutes Australia here).
As someone who has journaled for most of my adult life the idea of being able to recall every single day in vivid detail seemed thrilling and I wondered if Jill Price’s experience was the norm among people with HSAM. That led to these 60 Minute pieces. The first two are from 2010.
After the show aired, hundreds of people contacted Dr. James McGaugh including the family of 10 year old Jake Hausler who also has HSAM. Scientists at Washington University are working with Jake to try to understand how it’s done.
And finally, ‘Memory Hackers’ from NOVA, has an update on the Jake Hausler research, and also delves into a wide variety of cutting edge memory research.
Unfortunately the study found little to no benefit (no more than sham) using tDCS with two different montages to treat tinnitus. What is very interesting however, is that the study allowed participants to administer tDCS at home.
A Sooma tDCSTM device (Sooma Oy, Helsinki, Finland) was used in the study. The device is designed and approved for patient use with pre-programmed treatment parameters and hardware-level safety limits. Patients were given a package consisting of the stimulator unit and stimulation electrodes (consisting leads and pads) along with three pairs of sponge pouches for the electrode pads, a head cap with openings for the electrodes (Fig 1), a chinstrap and 0.9% saline solution.
In Europe, Sooma depression solution was approved for depression treatment in 2014.
Download the Sooma brochure (pdf)
Dr. Williams at SpeakWisdom takes a look at the new focus electrodes as well as new Caputron Amrex-style electrodes. Electrode Wars! (Well Not Quite)
foc.us (famous for the foc.us V2 brain stimulation device and the new Go Flow tDCS device) is just releasing a new sponge electrode system for the V2 and Go Flow that is very interesting! It consists of a rubber-like shell (about 2×2) and sponges that when inserted result in a 1.25 x 1.25 inch sponge contact area. To connect to the foc.us sponge electrodes, you need a special V2/Go Flow cable that attaches magnetically to the electrode shell. That means the problem of having an electrode jerked off of your head should you become tangled somehow goes away. This is a vastly better connection technology than the banana plug and socket used by many manufactures.
[Update 5/1/16] Perhaps with the unfortunate demise of Al Jazeera America, they have posted their TechKnow series online. We’re now able to watch the episode that featured Erica and Jeff and tDCS.
Exactly! Erica and Jeff have decided on a self-testing protocol I believe will effectively measure their tDCS results. Dual N-Back (online requires Silverlight) or download Brain Workshop.
By the time you read this there should also be a video interview at the TechKnow site.
Jeff’s (Boinger) Open tDCS: tDCS Regulation Circuits – Open Source Hardware project on GitHub: https://github.com/boinger/tdcs
Jeff’s DIY part list: https://github.com/boinger/tdcs/blob/master/bom.csv
And PCB board: https://github.com/boinger/tdcs/blob/master/board.png
Follow Jeff’s Reddit thread.: http://www.reddit.com/r/tDCS/comments/2hguka/experimenting_with_electricity_interview_from/
TechKnow: How do you plan on measuring your progress with the tDCS headset?
Erica: So I’m using a brain training game called Dual N-Back. So far I’ve tracked my progress with the game without using the tDCS, and I plan to use tDCS, and then practice the game and see how far I can get.
TechKnow: Are you going to record this information? Do you plan on making it available to other people?
Erica: I plan to track the amount of time I’m spending using tDCS and how well I’m performing in the game to see what is correlated.
Something remarkable comes of staring the future deep in the eyes and challenging everything that it seems to promise.
Virtual Futures | Conference & Salon Events on the Convergence of Art, Science, Technology, Philosophy & Culture | Originally based at the University of Warwick
You can watch the entire event as one clip, but I very much like how they have it snipped up into a playlist you can pick and choose from. Here are examples from each of the speakers. Full Playlist.
Andrew certainly seems like someone I should interview for the podcast!
From CNN Money This guy wears a helmet to make his brain more productive
From Sky News Brain Hacking On Rise: Could It Make You Perkier? (Also features Camilla Nord)
From 2014 DIY Brain Hacking with Andrew Vladimirov Speaker Preview of Anticipating 2025
And a couple of short clips from the Virtual Future Salon, February 2016
What Andrew is suggesting in this next clip is pretty wild. Basically, that he wants neurostimulation to operate in the brain at the molecular level, similar to how drugs work. Target a receptor site with a unique waveform?!!!