Jump Starting Creative Problem Solving With Electrical Brain Stimulation

RoseTracker| The solution to America’s lack of creative problem solving may be at hand. Australian researchers Richard Chi and Allan Snyder from the University of Sydney’s Centre for the Mind say that with a little electrical stimulation of the anterior temporal lobes, the human brain is three times as likely to reach the fresh insights necessary to solve a difficult or unfamiliar problem.

The left side of our brain tends to be in execution mode, relying on tried and true isms to be efficient, while the right side of our brain is more creative and inclined towards novelty. Our brain is constantly making tradeoffs and typically, the left brain wins the need for efficiency contest.

Chi and Snyder argue that we can modulate this tradeoff to our advantage by applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a safe, non-invasive technique that temporarily increases or decreases excitability of populations of neurons. In particular, tDCS can be used to manipulate the competition between the left and right hemisphere by inhibiting and/or disinhibiting certain networks. Their findings are consistent with evidence that the right anterior temporal lobe is associated with insight or novel meaning and that inhibition of the left anterior temporal lobe can induce a cognitive style that is less top-down, less influenced by preconceptions. via Science Daily

We find this research fascinating and Anne will volunteer to be a subject when the testing comes to America. PS.