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.

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.