A pair of researchers at Vanderbilt University have released the results of a series of test involving a “thinking cap” that uses electric currents to stimulate certain brain activities. Essentially, the cap—which is strapped to the subject’s head along with some sponges—sends specially programmed currents to parts of the brain associated with learning from mistakes. According to this story in CNET, the team identified an area of the brain that significantly increased a “negative-voltage spike” in the brain when targeted: “Their behavior was also altered, unknown to the subjects: They made fewer mistakes and learned from their mistakes more quickly than they did under the control.” Because the cap was designed to study neurological activity, for now it seems unlikely we’ll see “thinking caps” available for public use any time soon …
