

Neurostimulation: Hacking your brain - chvid
http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21645509-diy-bundle-electronics-or-ready-made-device-it-possible-stimulate

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arvinjoar
I highly recommend this radiolab episode about it:
[http://www.radiolab.org/story/9-volt-
nirvana/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/9-volt-nirvana/)

for the story-telling if nothing else. :)

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Apofis
Great episode. It seems to really work for a short period. Kind of like a
reboot for the brain. A pretty large community has sprung up around this.

Love Radiolab, they always bring these kinds of things to me while I fall
asleep. Podcasts are the greatest sleepaid ever, learn things while you fall
asleep.

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wz1000
Interesting. The psychedilic and nootropics culture could also be described as
having "Hacking the brain" as one of its essences.

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chvid
Yes. Only this is very simple technology to make:

[http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Human-Enhancement-
De...](http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Human-Enhancement-Device-Basic-
tDCS-Suppl/?ALLSTEPS)

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Mahn
What are the long term effects of this? Wouldn't you risk damaging your brain
if you shocked it regularly?

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glial
Nobody knows. Nobody even _really_ knows how this works yet.

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Balgair
On this, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) got through the FDA on special
humanitarian permission. The effects of continuously electrically stimulating
nuclei (the substansia nigra for Parkinson's DBS patients) are not known, but
there is some evidence that the patients have to up the amperage and voltage
over time. The reason is unknown, it could be due to death of neurons, or
downregulation of the ion pumps in the cells, we just don't know. What we do
know, is that for DBS patients, it is better than the alternative of the
tremors and stress. Really, that is most of medicine in the end. It's kinda
ritual. For a long time, we didn't know that silver or copper was
antibacterial, but we knew that if you ate with it, you would get less sick,
same with pewter pots leaching out lead with acidic compounds in the food.

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glial
This is not surprising at all - watching a video[1] of DBS is very moving.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO3C6iTpSGo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO3C6iTpSGo)

