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Stimulation enhances long-term learning
By Brenda Patoine
 November 21, 2007

Stimulating the brain during learning can improve long-term memory, at least for one type of learning, according to research from the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke and presented at the meeting.

Researchers working with healthy volunteers used a noninvasive technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Previous research has shown that this technique can change the pattern of nerve cell firing in the cortex and enhance short-term learning of motor tasks, but the effects on long-term learning had not been evaluated.

Transcranial direct current stimulation delivers a low-level electrical current directly to the brain via electrodes placed on the surface of the scalp. By changing the location of the electrodes, researchers can direct the current to a particular area of the cortex. This study used two electrodes; one positioned over the motor cortex, which controls movement, and the other over an area above the eyebrow.

Depending on the type of current used, tDCS can either increase or decrease nerve cell firing. In this study, participants underwent five daily applications of anodal tDCS, which boosts nerve cell firing, lasting 20 minutes each. One group received tDCS during the learning of a task that involved hitting targets on a computer screen with a cursor controlled by a grip-activated, hand-held device, a well-studied model for visual-motor learning. A second group received it immediately following the task, and a third group served as controls, receiving only “sham” tDCS.

Applying the current during the learning period resulted in better learning and recall of the task at all time points, including three months later. “We think this is really clinically relevant,” researcher Janine Reis said. “This is the first time we’ve shown that anodal tDCS during training improves motor learning long-term.”

The findings suggest a possible strategy for enhancing motor skill rehabilitation in people with neurologic injury such as stroke or spinal trauma, the authors said.

Comments

Direct Current Stimulation and Brain Injury
Gregorio Kelly

2/4/2008 5:02:42 PM

There is a field of therapy called Electrochemical Therapy (ECT, or EChT) that uses DC to kill tumors, to heal bone breaks, etc. The reader is encouraged to visit Wikipedia for "galvanic stimulation" to see what this involves.

The use of EChT to increase muscle mass has been patented; and, from the field of mathematical biology, comes an equation (see Wikipedia for "Kleiber's Law) that describes the role of electrochemistry in metabolism for things small and large. The equation models how the use of EChT to increase muscle mass and metabolic rate, can extend the functional life of humans from 30 to 100 percent. This means that paralysis following nervous system trauma from stroke or concussion, always followed by disuse atrophy of the muscles that advances during the acute phase, can be reversed without exercise. What a wonderful thing!

The only problem is that biological scientists still have no idea what the difference is between AC and DC, that electrical/metabolic energy is measured in amperes (not calories), and that amperes cannot be had from AC or a DC that changes poles with each pulse. The biggest impediment to the spread of EChT and its exploitation for fitness and life extension, is biological science's adherence to archaic notions of bioenergetics that have their root in 19th century thermodynamics.