Certain problems are inherently difficult for the normal human mind. Yet paradoxically they can be effortless for those with an unusual mind. We discovered that an atypical protocol for non-invasive brain stimulation enabled the solution of a problem that was previously unsolvable. The majority of studies over the last century find that no participants can solve the nine-dot problem - a fact we...

In order to gain insight into the public's perspective on using the minimally invasive technique transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an enhancement tool, we analyzed and compared online comments in key popular press articles from two different periods (pre-commercialization and post-commercialization). The main conclusion drawn from this exploratory investigation is that public pe...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an innovative method to explore the causal structure-function relationship of brain areas. We investigated the specificity of bilateral bi-cephalic tDCS with two active electrodes of the same polarity (e.g., cathodal on both hemispheres) applied to intraparietal cortices bilaterally using a combined between- and within-task approach. Regarding b...

Working memory (WM) permits maintenance of information over brief delays and is an essential executive function. Unfortunately, WM is subject to age-related decline. Some evidence supports the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to improve visual WM. A gap in knowledge is an understanding of the mechanism characterizing these tDCS linked effects. To address this gap, we compar...

Previous research showed that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can modulate visual cortex excitability. However, there is no experiment on the effects of tDCS on color perception to date. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of tDCS on color discrimination tasks. Fifteen healthy subjects (mean age of 25.6 ± 4.4 years) were tested with Cambridge Color Test 2.0 (Trivec...

Perceptual learning is a key perceptual skill that people possess, in particular, it contributes to their ability to distinguish between faces thus recognize individuals. Recently, we showed that anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) at Fp3 abolishes the inversion effect (that would otherwise exist) for familiar checkerboards created from a prototype. Because of the close analog...

Through plasticity the brain is able to change its function and to rearrange following injury or environmental changes. In recent years, it was shown that non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques, especially transcra- nial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can contribute to understand how these plastic changes occur. Additionally, the literatu...