Deep Brain Stimulation Can Improve Creativity

The brain has been the main character in recent decades. Academics from all over the world and from different disciplines have invested a lot of time and money in researching it. This is a special topic that has aroused great interest among researchers and the general public. Basically, they are interested in finding out how people can get the most out of their abilities, how they can be rehabilitated and even how they can improve them. In this sense, deep brain stimulation is one of the most innovative techniques to accomplish this.

This technique induces electrical currents in the brain to alter or stimulate activity to specific areas. There are several types of stimulation, depending on the degree of invasion and the type of stimulus. Among the largest we have:

• Deep brain stimulation (DBS). This is quite invasive since pulses or electrodes are implanted directly in a specific area of ​​the patient’s body or brain. Professionals usually use this technique in severe cases of Parkinson’s or severe tremor.

• External brain stimulation. Here are the types of brain stimulation that are not invasive and that are a breakthrough for science.
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). A device is placed near the person’s scalp, which generates magnetic fields that induce electric currents. The currents pass through the skull and stimulate the target area.
  • Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES). Electrodes are placed in the patient’s scalp, which emit currents of low amplitude and either increase or decrease the activity of neurons in a specific part of the brain. Professionals use either this stream continuously (tDCS) or alternately (tACS).

The power of deep brain stimulation

In general, people use brain stimulation to compensate for any deficiencies or alleviate disorders related to brain activity. In other words, the disorders usually involve abnormal activity patterns, either due to abundance or absence. You could say that brain stimulation helps regulate the firing patterns of groups of neurons in specific areas.

For example, many people use transcranial magnetic stimulation to treat mood disorders (depression, bipolar disorder), post-traumatic stress disorder, neuropathic pain, and even stuttering.

Similarly, professionals like to use transcranial DC stimulation (tDCS) to rehabilitate processes related to the cognitive, motor and sensory abilities of people with dementia or who have suffered a stroke.

Furthermore, researchers at the University of Sydney made an almost science-fiction-like discovery of this latest brain stimulation technique. In the study, they presented a group of people with a task that arose from connecting a group of dots that were placed in three times three using four lines.

This exercise may seem simple. However, it poses great difficulties for most people, even after giving them hints and facilitating some steps. They initially realized that none of the participants were able to solve the task.

After only 10 minutes of using tDCS, almost half of them solved it without any problems. Those who did not receive brain stimulation were unable to solve the problem.

Therefore, we ask ourselves if it is possible for this technique to do more than rehabilitate some changes. Is it capable of strengthening human abilities?

Deep brain stimulation also enhances creativity

Furthermore, researchers have used other transcranial electrical stimulation techniques, such as tACS, which aim to investigate neuronal oscillations and brain functions. However, they have also used this technique by using small waves in specific areas, related to motor functions, working memory and perceptual areas.

Recently, a research team at the University of North Carolina went further in the case. They investigated the effect of brain stimulation on creativity. This ability consists of producing innovative ideas in addition to linking old concepts to new ones. It has also been linked to intelligence.

North American researchers performed creativity tests on a group of people before and after using transcranial AC stimulation (tACS). As a result, they saw that creativity increased by 7.4% by increasing the power of alpha waves in the forehead lobe through transcranial stimulation.

What’s next?

Many researchers are no doubt continuing to investigate the use of brain stimulation to improve cognitive skills. There will probably come a time when everyone can improve memory, the ability to make decisions or attention through brain stimulation. The question is whether it would be ethical . Would it make sense to use brain stimulation just to get more creative?

However, there is still a long way to go to optimize the results produced by these types of interventions. On the other hand, while progress has been made with the intention of improving certain pathologies, everyone wants science to move forward.