A Beginner’s Guide to Electrocuting Your Brain
If you haven’t seen Limitless, it’s a movie (and now a TV show) where a guy takes a pill that allows him to access more of his brain, which basically makes him learn faster and outsmart everyone around him. That, of course, is a work of fiction. But in the real world, there are legitimate medical professionals attempting to do something similar with transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), which, simply put, is running small, controlled electrical current through your brain to make it work better. Experiments in tDCS range from testing accelerated learning potential to treating depression to, as we explored in a previous film, tapping into your dreams. Watch the film above to meet Andy Quitmeyer, a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech who has created some of his own DIY brain-zapping techniques. Needless to say, you should not try this on yourself.