Photograph by Matt Sornson

It should be noted that Sornson studies marketing, not neuroscience, and the rest of his crew specialize in software and website design. “This machine will be designed for people interested in experimental use,” Sornson says.

The GoFlow β1 has yet to go on sale, but there are some specs available. It will cost $99 and come with a 60-pack of disposable electrodes, a placement map, and a 5-milliamps safety fuse, which is nice. Sornson has started to contact professors at Michigan State and Western Michigan University about conducting tests with the contraption—and hopefully adding some scientific rigor to the device.

via Buy a DIY Brain Supercharger for $100 – Businessweek.
GoFlow has a video now.

Interesting, a press release via MarketWatch.

MRN researchers also developed novel electrode technology that increases the safety and comfort of subjects. They recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) during brain stimulation with TDCS to document the enhanced responses to stimuli. Brain response to activation of a sensory nerve in the arm was significantly larger with TDCS compared to a mock TDCS control condition. The sensory-evoked brain wave remained 2.5 times greater than normal 30 minutes after TDCS. Results suggest that TDCS increases cerebral cortex excitability, thereby increasing responses to sensory input and accelerating memory formation.

via Electrical Shocks to Brain Accelerate Learning – MarketWatch.

Article goes on to discuss two other studies and their findings.

Crinion’s current work focuses on understanding how tDCS affects the areas of the brain involved in speech production. She paired an fMRI picture-naming study with a 6-week-long tDCS and word-finding treatment study to see if brain stimulation could improve stroke patients’ speech both immediately after treatment and three months later. In the picture-naming task, people were presented with pictures of simple, everyday words such as car and asked to name them as quickly and accurately as possible.

The results support other studies that tDCS can speed up word finding in both healthy older people and stroke patients, and are helping to identify which parts of the brain should be stimulated. “My work supports the idea that excitatory tDCS could be applied to the stroke hemisphere to optimize recovery,” Crinion says. At the same time, she cautions, one type of treatment may not fit all patients, and further work will clarify whether some patients may also benefit from treatments targeted at the brain hemisphere not affected by stroke.

via Non-invasive brain stimulation cuts time to improve speech in stroke patients.

Other links in this article led to a clinic, more claims, and devices. Probably things are going to get murky quickly.

Transcranial stimulation is simple and it includes two electrodes along with device running on a 9-volt battery to pass a stable current of 1-2 microamps constantly to form an electromagnetic field for modulating the neuron activity n the cerebral cortex. This device boasts a cathodal electrode as well as an anodal electrode, of which the latter is positively charged electrode while the former is negatively charged. When the switch is turned on, the current passes to the cathodal electrode via the anodal electrode, forming a circuit. The batter-powered device also has controls for setting the current along with the duration of the brain stimulation.

via Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation TDCS: Is it Effective for Treating Depression | Signs of Depression.