1月29日，据媒体报道，牛津大学的研究人员日前发现，利用轻微电击刺激脑部，能提升数学能力，还可改善记忆。这意味只需花费500英镑买个电震器，就有可能成为天才。但也有科学家担心新科技会被不法之徒滥用，反而会阻碍脑部发育。
据报道，牛津大学神经学家卡多什利用高科技系统“跨颅直流电刺激法”，以轻微电流刺激脑部特定部位。实验发现，当刺激负责阅读、书写及计算的部位时，有助于提升被测试者的数学能力，因为电流可刺激脑部制造更多化学物质，从而改变脑部结构，实现“神经可塑性”，改善记忆和解决问题的能力，同时有助于学习新事物。
卡多什表示，新技术十分安全，所用电流比可损害脑部的电流低1000倍。据悉，此前电击科技被用于治疗认知障碍，将来或可用以治疗抑郁症及帕金森症等疾病。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.032
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Enhanced Cortical Excitability in Grapheme-Color Synesthesia and Its Modulation
Devin Blair Terhune, Sarah Tai, Alan Cowey, Tudor Popescu, Roi Cohen Kadosh
Synesthesia is an unusual condition characterized by the over-binding of two or more features and the concomitant automatic and conscious experience of atypical, ancillary images or perception. Previous research suggests that synesthetes display enhanced modality-specific perceptual processing,but it remains unclear whether enhanced processing contributes to conscious awareness of color photisms. In three experiments, we investigated whether grapheme-color synesthesia is characterized by enhanced cortical excitability in primary visual cortex and the role played by this hyperexcitability in the expression of synesthesia. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we show that synesthetes display 3-fold lower phosphene thresholds than controls during stimulation of the primary visual cortex. We next used transcranial direct current stimulation to discriminate between two competing hypotheses of the role of hyperexcitability in the expression of synesthesia. We demonstrate that synesthesia can be selectively augmented with cathodal stimulation and attenuated with anodal stimulation of primary visual cortex. A control task revealed that the effect of the brain stimulation was specific to the experience of synesthesia. These results indicate that hyperexcitability acts as a source of noise in visual cortex that influences the availability of the neuronal signals underlying conscious awareness of synesthetic photisms.
