AsianScientist (Apr. 2, 2012) – Brain stimulation can markedly improve people’s ability to solve highly complex problems, reports a recent University of Sydney study published in Neuroscience Letters.
“The results suggest non-invasive brain stimulation could assist people in solving tasks that appear straightforward but are inherently difficult,” said Professor Allan Snyder, senior author on the study.
Our minds have evolved to solve certain problems effortlessly, say the authors, yet we struggle to solve others that appear simple but require us to ‘think outside the box.’
“As an example we have taken the famous nine dots problem, where you are asked to join all the dots with four straight lines without taking the pen off the page,” Snyder said. “Surprisingly, investigations over the last century show that almost no one can do this.”
In this study, more than 40 percent of the people they tested were able to solve the nine dots problem after receiving ten minutes of safe, non-invasive brain stimulation.
Specifically the left anterior temporal lobe of the brain is inhibited while simultaneously the right anterior temporal lobe is excited, employing a technique known as transcranial direct current stimulation.
Using the same procedure the researchers have previously reported success in amplifying insight and memory.
The authors suggest that their unique brain stimulation protocol could ultimately enable people to “escape the tricks our minds impose on us,” as Snyder describes it, and solve tasks that appear deceptively simple.
The article can be found at: Chi RP et al. (2012) Brain stimulation enables the solution of an inherently difficult problem.
——
Source: University of Sydney.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
