In the article, “Jumper Cables for The Mind”, Dan Hurley describes his experience with tDCS (transcranial direct-current stimulation) and if its process changes brain activity to cause quick reaction time, better memory, improved mental health, and even the ability to solve equations. This stimulation process involves the attachment of wires, (similar to what is used in an EEG), to the head on certain areas for specific targets of the brain. It is a short session and allows an analyzation to see if any changes had been made by doing a simple test exercise on a computer. Successful results will show improved reaction time and less problems marked wrong on the exercise.
Transcranial direct-current …show more content…
While many may believe that this may be bogus, many physiologists and scientists have argued otherwise. Hurley has mentioned numerous men or who either of these occupations and has also written about one in particular who agreed that this stimulation process is effective. As many people have believed that the allopathic (common form of medicine) route is best for treatment, Roy Hoshi Hamilton, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation, believes otherwise. Hurley proposed a question that asked how electricity can make someone have a better thought process. In his article he mentioned, “A thought is what happens when some pattern of firing of neurons has happened in your brain.” (Hurley, Dan. “Jumper Cables for the Mind”). This quotation by Hoshi, in response to Hurley, provides a person with the thought that this is the same as a car on the road running low on gas and needing a form of energy to boost back to its working form. In this case, the brain needs electric currents to provide energy to the brain for it to function better in a period of time. This works by putting a person to engage in a certain task. While doing this, the stimulation of the brains neurons over the course of the sessions and doing the same task each time, manipulates the brain to think that this task is normal. As this becomes a normal routine, it can be considered practice and practice overtime results in improvements. For these electrodes, the studies that have been conducted and resulted successfully, have proven this