Ever since the physician Scribonius Largus slapped an electric torpedo fish on the forehead of a headache sufferer in the early days of the Roman empire, electricity has been pursued as a cure for a seemingly endless variety of ailments–by serious scientists and profiteering quacks alike. The latest chapter in this long and colorful history (see sidebar below) involves something called transcranial direct current stimulation, in which a small electric current is delivered to the brain through electrodes...
Neuroscientists have successfully used a new type of brain stimulation to act on a mental braking system located in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain above the eyes.
The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, gave participants a simple test of self-control (Wessel et al., 2013).
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One of the study’s authors, Nitin Tandon, M.D., explained:
“There is a circuit in the brain for inhibiting or braking responses. We believe we are the first to show that we can enhance...
