For a little while now, people have been hacking their own brains with something called tDCS, or electrodes on the scalp, trying to enhance their mood and mental functioning.
-But the potentially-dangerous bro-science practice has had spotty results, until now.
Because a company called Thync has pooled a team of experts to change all that.
When their engineers & doctors looked at all the different effects and the conflicting studies surrounding the noggin-zaps, from improvements on:
1) Energy,
2) Creativity,
3) Memory,
4) Math,
5) Depression,
6) And even Relaxation,
They came up with some interesting conclusions.
They decided that the electrical current was unlikely to directly stimulate the brain, due to all the skin, skull and cerebrospinal fluid that gets in the way.
So if tDCS did have results, what could possibly be at work?
They concluded that the brain-hack boxes were just stimulating nerves in the scalp that are para-sympathetic with the Fight-or-Flight response & thus caused the brain to release small amounts of the focus+action hormones, like norepinepherine.
So what they did, is to take the idea, apply more rigorous scientific and medical controls,
And out the other end of their widget-machine pops a device that’s actually-usable and a lot less hit-and-miss than the DIY kits around.
The mysteriously un-photgraphed Thync Relaxer is a combination of both Electro-stim and Ultrasound contacts you stick on your head & neck that is controlled via your smartphone & bluetooth.
And because of the App+Smartphone revolution, it can be programmed to operate in a much more nuanced & variable way than the janky-old DIY boxes floating around.
By using pulses instead of steady-current, it is also much less noticeable and much less unpleasant than the mod-box style 9-Volt + Sponges brain-stim.
Though the results do unfortunately vary from person to person, and 20% will see no effect at all, many people have had a good response to it.
And because of Thync’s deep-dive on the Anecdotes, the Science & the Study-Results, the Relaxer can do either an “Energy” mode or a “Calm” mode, with anything from a 2-Espresso-like blast,
All the way down to what Kevin Bullis’ colleague called “1/15th Opium Den”-level relaxation.
::Keanu-Reeves-Style Whoa::
The Thync relaxer will probably be similar to the already-existing Foc.us, and available somewhere around the end of 2015, if all goes well. The information signup link to be on their mailing list and also Boston or SF Beta Tests is here.
Check out the Links for more Details:
Photo Credits:
“relax”, by Chris Frewin
“NYC – MoMA: Design and the Elastic Mind – Humans vs. Chimps”, by Wally Gobetz
Links:
•Source: TechReview-Thync Relaxer
• via: Engadget
• More Coverage: BG-Thync | IEEE/S-DIY Brain Hacking | BetaBoston | DailyMail-tDCS Should Be Regulated
• Source Studies: Thync-Scientific Publications
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