Thinking Cap
For a long time people have been
searching for ways to get ahead. Recently people have been turning to drugs and
other cognitive enhancing stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin. But what if there
was a safe way to get that edge that had a few side effects. Many people have
been experimenting with a device called transcranial direct current stimulant
or for short tDCS. Another name for the tDCS device is the “Thinking Cap” which
has been able to double cognitive attention in recent US Military experiments.
With this device people will be able to process more and have a better
understanding of whatever material they are studying while removing the side effects that cognitive enhancing narcotics have such as sleep deprivation andanxiety.
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| Women being tested with Thinking Cap |
The thinking cap had been one of
those ideas that people consider to be irreverent or just one of those things
cute things that elementary school teachers say to their students to get them
thinking about ideas. Recently scientist and DIY researchers have been looking
to make a safe marketable thinking cap that, but have yet to come out with any
such product. While there are some kits for sales today, none of them have been
FDA approved. Many tests have been conducted by Vanderbilt University with people using tDCS,
then without it and every time the results showed that people using this had
somewhere between two and two point five sensory evoked brain activity. So far no side effects have been recorded Sally Adee , a reporter for last word
on nothing, described it as “…had an excellent cup of coffee, but without the
caffeine jitters” she also said that she felt like herself but more cognitively
aware. Many of these test have been for military application such as training
air force pilots or help people train for sniper training, which enhances
marksmanship and object recognition. With these advances we would be able to
train our soldiers to be more effective and keep our men and women out of
danger.
Since the general public is still
very unfamiliar with the thinking cap, some people do not know how it works. John Hopkins Medicine posted an article saying "There are two electrodes placed over the head that administer a constant and
low intensity current that stimulates certain areas of the brain". This is a
non-invasive and relatively painless treatment. The only noted side effects of
this treatment have been a "slight itching or tingling of the scalp". There are
two types of stimulation that tDCS can offer: anodal and cathodal. "Anodal
stimulates parts of the brain that excite neuronal activity" which help will be
able to help you learn faster. While the "cathodal electrodes inhibit or reduces
neuron activity", which will actually decrease the rate that you can learn by
the same amount as the anodal helps.
Some people consider the Thinking
Cap as a dangerous device that can "enhance one area of the brain and diminish thelearning capabilities of another area of the brain". Also some have argued that
with long exposure to the tDCS device we could completely lose our ability to
learn without that stimulation. While some of these
thing are a possibility none of those things have been proved in testing. None
of these test are infallible, and some may have not been looking for these sorts
of problems but right now one of the problems that we do face is people abusing
substances such as Adderall and Ritalin. Adderall and Ritalin have noted side
effects of anxiety, sleep disturbances, and loss of appetite, while the only
noted side effect of the tDCS device is an itchiness of tingling of the scalp.
Also cognitive enhancing drugs have
a shared major side effect of becoming addictive. A young man named Isaac Bowers
was using a cognitive enhancing drug for about a year and “experienced a mild
cognitive boost and increased energy” but went through a bad withdrawal when he
stopped taking it. He explained “After about two days, I fell flat on my face…all
of a sudden I’d go to think something and it wouldn't be there.” The only way he got over the side effects was
to take another drug call “NSI-189”. So
far the thinking cap has had no side effects of becoming addicting of people
becoming dependent on them to think.
Another advantage of the thinking
cap is that it would be able to treat neuropsychiatric conditions. Irving Reti is a M.D at John Hopkins Hospital
as he said that "the thinking cap may be able to treat conditions such as
depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s diseases, and chronic pain and the only side
effect that has been noted was a slight itching or tingling of the scalp". He
also noted that there was “cognitive improvement” in some patients that
underwent tDCS. Unfortunately, this is
not a FDA-approved treatment due to the lack of adequate research done with
this device.
While
some people have the idea that transcranial direct current stimulation sends
dangerous amounts of electricity through your brain, more people known that
this is not true and are becoming more welcoming to the idea of using such a
device. With all the side effects of cognitive enhancing narcotics the thinking
caps side effects of an itchy head does not seem to extreme. With the increased
use of these drugs on college campuses all over the US, the need for a device
like this becomes needed more and more. If the Thinking Cap were to become commercially
available and was proven to be safe, the amount of dependencies on cognitive
enhancing drugs would decrease exponentially.
