Real-life ‘thinking cap’ boosts ability to solve math problems
February 11, 2011
Kenyon Wallace
TORONTO STAR
The old saying “Put your thinking caps on” now has a literal application thanks to two Australian brain researchers who have done just that.
Scientists at the University of Sydney’s Centre for the Mind have released preliminary results of a study that measured people’s ability to solve math problems after their brains were subjected to electrical currents using a “thinking cap.”
The researchers found that of the 60 participants, those who volunteered to wear the thinking cap — a hat with two electricity conductors on either side of the head — were three times as likely to complete the test, compared to those who attempted to solve problems without the device.
“Our experiences can blind us,” write researchers Richard Chi and Allan Snyder in their study recently published in the journal PLoS One.
They note that our propensity to apply strategies learned by solving previous problems could actually hinder us when confronted with a new, unknown situation, thus creating a “bottleneck to making creative leaps.”
“Once we have learned to solve problems by one method, we often have difficulties in generating solutions involving a different kind of insight. This inspired us to investigate whether the mental set effect can be reduced by non-invasive brain stimulation.”
The thinking cap provided transcranial direct current stimulation to subjects’ anterior temporal lobes. The researchers found that those with increased electrical stimulation to the right anterior temporal lobe – the area of the brain associated with insight and creativity – combined with a suppression of the left anterior lobe – an area associated with knowledge and memory – were better able to solve problems.
The researchers argue that the application of direct current stimulation to the brain can essentially be used to modulate “competition” between the left and right hemispheres, thereby allowing for more creative decision making when dealing with new problems.
Scientists have long used direct current stimulation to treat psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety, but the Australian study is the first to examine the procedure’s effect on insight.
“You wouldn’t use this to study or to help your memory,” Snyder, director of the Centre for the Mind, told Agence France Presse. “You would use this if you wanted to look at a problem anew. . . if you wanted to look at the world, just briefly, with a child’s view, if you wanted to look outside the box.
“The dream is that one day we may be able to stimulate the brain in a particular way to give you, just momentarily, an unfiltered view of the world.”
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