Honestly I just burned out on following along with a lot of science that didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. What attracted me to tDCS were the stories and studies that implied accelerated learning and improved memory skills were just around the corner. What kept me interested were depression studies that did seem to demonstrate effectiveness. And considering my own bias against pharmaceuticals, even if the positive effects of tDCS for depression were placebo, I considered it worth talking about and promoting. I still do, for depression.
But tDCS is fairly easy to work with and that means lots of young scientists doing low-powered studies, the upshot of which might be a published paper, but not much else.
What actually stopped me in my tracks was the sudden realization of how little we know about electricity in the human body.
It was this Sean Carroll podcast with Michael Levin where he discusses manipulating the growth of tadpoles and flatworms with electricity (among many other things related to bioelectricty) that made me question the safety and sensibility of introducing current into our brains! There are some profound first-level mysteries at play here, and until we know more, OR, there is a solid ‘do this – get that result’ application of tDCS, I’m taking a wait and see perspective.
Thanks for following along!
John