Sending a weak electrical impulse through the front of a person’s head can boost verbal skills by as much as 20 percent, according to a new study by the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
In the study, researchers at the institute asked 103 volunteers to recall as many words that begin with a particular letter as possible. The researchers then passed a 2-milliamp current — one-tenth of what is needed to power a small LED (light-emitting diode) light — through electrodes attached to the surfaces of the volunteers’ foreheads. When the volunteers were quizzed again while the current was still on, this time with a different letter, they were able to come up with 20 percent more words on average.
Now they will have to test Boggle players to make sure they’re not getting an illegal boost.
One has to wonder about the two letters they chose. Some letters are a lot easier to come up with words for than others. Presumably they took that into account, but who knows?