Brain-Zapping Gadgets Need Regulation, Say Scientists (ieee.org) 51
the_newsbeagle writes: You can now buy gadgets online that send electric current through your scalp to stimulate your brain. Why would you want to do that? Because the easy technique, called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), is being investigated as a treatment for depression, a rehab aid for stroke patients, a learning enhancer for healthy people, and for many other neuropsychiatric applications.
However, the technique is so new that companies selling brain-zapping gadgets aren't bound by any regulations, and experts are worried that consumers will end up buying devices that aren't safe or simply aren't effective. So scientists and some manufacturers recently got together to discuss the scope of the problem, and what can be done about it.
Earlier IEEE reported that "Professional basketball, baseball, and American football teams are also experimenting with it," adding that some Olympic athletes, including sprinters and swimmers, even used a premarket version of one brain-zapping device to prepare for the Olympics in Rio.
However, the technique is so new that companies selling brain-zapping gadgets aren't bound by any regulations, and experts are worried that consumers will end up buying devices that aren't safe or simply aren't effective. So scientists and some manufacturers recently got together to discuss the scope of the problem, and what can be done about it.
Earlier IEEE reported that "Professional basketball, baseball, and American football teams are also experimenting with it," adding that some Olympic athletes, including sprinters and swimmers, even used a premarket version of one brain-zapping device to prepare for the Olympics in Rio.
Re:Hmph... (Score:4, Informative)
Isn't Samsung, a large multinational corporation with a huge quality control budget and a brand to protect, recalling their flagship phone because it's bursting into flames during charging?
Tell us again how there is no actual danger from cheap, unregulated devices from sending a very narrow safe range of wattage through people's brains?
Put a hold on regulations for a bit (Score:2)
Worries about safety, and actual danger are not the same thing.
"Worries about safety" is not the real issue. The real issue is control and money. Doctors see informed patients as a big threat, and are trying hard to position themselves as gatekeepers to treatment, so they can collect tolls.
To add to the OP, consider:
Brain-zapping devices are reasonably safe to use right now. There have been no highly-publicised reports of death or injury from using them, there's lots of anecdotal evidence for the benefits, and generally it's not a public health problem.
I would peg the danger level of these devices as about the same as supplements. You can destroy your liver or kidneys from supplements, and you might get side-effects (such as heart palpitations), but it's highly unlikely,
It took the FDA 30 yea
Re: (Score:2)
There is no need for a device to experience brain zapping. Just quit SSRI cold turkey and have "fun".
Re: (Score:2)
Stupid or excessive regulation bad, vote 3rd party!
THis is why they lock up the Dewalts and Makitas (Score:3)
People sneaking into Home Depot to treppan themselves has gotten to be a real problem so they had to lock up all the drills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
People sneaking into Home Depot to treppan themselves has gotten to be a real problem so they had to lock up all the drills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Perhaps the real problem here is the fact that society has made the concept of privacy a crime (to include any shred of medical privacy), so have fun when your IoT-enabled, cloud-driven, 21st Century electric treppan sells your soul online.
Re: (Score:3)
People sneaking into Home Depot to treppan themselves has gotten to be a real problem so they had to lock up all the drills.
That is a silly overreaction. Instead of locking up the drills, they could have just locked up the forstner bits.
Re: (Score:3)
And certainly not some simple studies done by private organizations a la Consumer Reports.
But can you bribe Consumer Reports to force your competitors out of the market?
nutrition (Score:2)
Logical Progression (Score:1, Insightful)
You can go buy alcohol, that kills brain cells, but also kills your liver. We're in the process of legalizing MJ and that definitely kills brain cells, but is worse than cigarettes for your lungs. The droud (Ringworld series by Larry Niven, direct electrical stimulation of the pleasure centers of the brain) is the logical progression. Those who want to check out of reality can do so for pennies a day and their bodies stay perfectly healthy to be used as organ farms later on to pay for the cost of their l
Re: Logical Progression (Score:1)
Actually MJ doesn't kill brain cells because it isn't toxic. That's why it's not possible to overdose on it. It's definitely possible to overdose on alcohol because it does have a level of toxicity.
Re: (Score:2)
They found that marijuana use was almost as common as cigarette smoking in the sample, which was designed to reflect the U.S. population. Among participants, the average marijuana user toked 2-3 times a month, while the average tobacco user smoked eight cigarettes a day. Those who smoked both tended to do so slightly more frequently than those who smoked only cigarettes or only marijuana.
Good that they found a sample of non smokers who smoke cannabis, but this is like saying wine is good because persons who drink a glass of wine 2-3 times a month and nothing else are very healthy, slightly more than average, whereas people who drink eight beers a day are wrecking themselves.
Re: (Score:2)
Lets not forget to be equal to say cigarettes, where people smoke one or two packets at day, that's something like thirty or forty joints. Wait, what most people do not smoke that much MJ and are more likely to smoke the equivalent of say a quarter of a cigarette a day, perhaps the equivalent of a packet of cigarettes, over one third of a year. Doesn't of course stop arse holes from bullshitting. The alcohol industries and pharmaceuticals are freaking out at the thought of lost profits, to MJ industries or
Re: (Score:2)
"The only usefulness in it is pain suppression and mood alteration. "
You should check any 24hour food market around any campus, they'll tell you it also makes a great appetite.
Torn over regulation (Score:4)
One side of me says let Darwinism work its magic, but another side doesn't want to share roads with a guy having an IQ of 25.
Re: (Score:2)
If they have an IQ of 25, you don't need to worry about sharing the road with them. They're going to have enough of a problem walking while drooling all over themselves.
Re: (Score:1)
I've seen driveling drivers
Re: (Score:2)
One side of me says let Darwinism work its magic, but another side doesn't want to share roads with a guy having an IQ of 25.
Maybe they'll make people into witches and warlocks too - I can propose that, so let's ban the thing!
Actually, I can't figure out if this impulse is to protect the livestock on the tax farm or if it's just Puritanism amok. Fine, "why not both?"
It's my turn to think, is it? Again! (Score:2)
Make it mandatory to label them with a picture of Charles Darwin.
If you don't get the reference and you fry your brain it's no great loss.
interesting (Score:1)
Been around for a while (Score:2)
Regulation already exists (Score:2)
In the United States, any device that offers a medical treatment or claims to have positive medical effects would already fall under FDA regulations via the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. They sort things into a bunch of different classes that determine the degree of risk and regulatory burden; anything that passes electricity into your head is probably going to need a full 510(k) registration.
Re: (Score:1)
Although low voltage and current scalp stimulation sounds innocuous, consider the new treatment for glioblastoma, Optune, which uses tuned low voltage and current AC electrical stimulation to alter the behavior of the most malignant primary brain tumor. There is a lot we don't know.
history repeats itself (Score:2)
shocking people with electricity imagining it would cure all manner of ills has been done in centuries past, and so the merry-go-round of stupidity comes full circle again. not quite as bad as sticking radium up a kid's nose to fix sinus problems (and thereby killing a bunch of tissue at the least and causing cancer later in life at the worse...), not quite as harmless as putting magnets in bandages...
My experience with this (Score:2)
Inventor was in the same club as Alan Turing (Score:2)
Fun fact, the inventor [royalsocie...ishing.org] of direct trans-cranial stimulation was in the same cybernetics club [wikipedia.org] as Alan Turing at Cambridge.
Reportedly the first applications were only by devotees as it hurt like a ... and one hapless subject (also a researcher) fainted! The experimenters were dismayed as when the subject fell over he threatened to pull the lab apparatus with him, and that could have broken it as it was experimental, i.e. a hodgepodge of thrown together bits; not "patient proof". They went for the gear to stop
Why not magnetic? (TMS) (Score:2)