There is some individuals out there that have struggled with math at least once while attending school. A special method that is not quite common is out there to increase your math skills. The article in Gizmag by Darren Quick explains the way in which bolts of electricity given to a human can boost their mathematical skills. Researchers at the University of Oxford conducted this study. Adding this electrical current to the brain is mainly aimed at helping individuals suffering from dyscalculia, which is those who lose their numerical skills.
Researchers used a brain stimulation method called “transcranial direct current stimulation (tdcs)” in which according to the article is the situation in which a weak current is sent to the brain, they target the parietal lobe which is a region that is crucial for learning math. The individuals who were given the electrical treatment were given a test conducted by the researchers. They were given symbols that represented numbers that they have never seen before. The individuals were given methods in order to solve problems with these numbers and symbols. The conclusion of the research was that the (tdcs) treatment did in fact increase math skills.
One may asked themselves questions that may revolve about the conclusions of the research that was done or about the study itself. Can any electrical shocks be used to increase any other skills in other school subjects such as English, Science, etc? Are there other methods other than shocks that can be used?
This must be for pretty extreme cases! Good find of an interesting topic. Can you continue to push the analysis a bit further? What does a practice like this tell us about the brain? Might there be other, less-extreme, measures of re-formatting or re-booting the brain? How do our everyday media fit into this? etc.