Timed starts in foc.us firmware 2.1

Posted on July 24, 2015 by John

Impressive! Foc.us has just released a software upgrade that will allow replication of the lucid dreaming protocol outlined in a recent study called, “Induction of self awareness in dreams through frontal low current stimulation of gamma activity“. It will be some weeks before we start to hear back from users, but you have to hand it to Foc.us for keeping their ears open to what ‘the community‘ is interested in.

foc.us firmware 2.1

Timing is everything.
Now if you update your foc.us v2 with the new 2.1 firmware you can set your stimulation to start in the future. Why? To sleep, per chance to dream.

It seems many of you are trying to recreate the Voss, Nitsche 2014 Lucid Dreaming paper published in Nature. So we have created a program with the settings and a timer for you to set based on your sleep pattern. You will still need to estimate when you will be in REM but the program has a 10 min window for you to aim at.

Source: timed starts in foc.us firmware 2.1

More Thoughts on Thync

Posted on July 23, 2015 by John

Just because it’s come up quite a bit lately on the tDCS subReddit , I thought to re-publish this link to a talk Jamie Tyler gave just prior to the release of their device, where he explains his understanding of what’s going on, as well as their intentions. Jamie’s intro starts at 45:46. He begins his explanation of how Thync’s device works at 52:46.

Thync paper referenced in talk: http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/06/03/015032
Thync patent application: https://www.google.com/patents/US20140148872?dq=thync

(My Notes: FDA, ‘limited output’, exempt from pre-market notification, or 510 k process. Below average current of 10mA, current density below 2mA per square centimeter.)

This Gadget Gives You a Low-Voltage Pick-Me-Up – WSJ

Posted on July 22, 2015 by John

After more than a dozen Thync sessions, I’d consider keeping one around to use when I need a chill pill or some encouragement to go to the gym. It’s not a perfect replacement for coffee or wine—more delicious, not to mention social, ways to shift my state of mind. But Thync is a drug-free alternative. It’s just less well understood.
Getting the hang of digitally vibing out takes a few days. The hardest part is applying the tortilla-chip-shaped gadget to your head so it can access the right nerves. Pick the wrong spot and you get the brain-freeze effect; place it too loosely and you get a burning sensation. It uses a gooey disposable strip (sold in $20 packs of five). The other end of the strip goes behind your ear or at the base of your neck to allow the electricity to complete a circuit.
There’s potential for user error, though not self-harm, Thync says, if you follow instructions. (Thync provides guidance via a manual, online videos and live chat.)

Source: This Gadget Gives You a Low-Voltage Pick-Me-Up – WSJ

Foc.us ‘Moovs’ Electrodes

Posted on July 22, 2015 by John

Foc.us recently released a new set of electrodes that addresses many of the issues customers and reviewers had with previous releases.

Also very impressed to see this on their website.

Coming soon… foc.us+
Connect and share with others like you

Using foc.us+ you can find experts who can help tailor the perfect program for your neuro-modulation needs. Track your progress, monitor your improvements. take charge

Foc.us is definitely listening and doing their best to stay one step ahead of everybody else.

BrainKit 1.0 released

Posted on July 19, 2015 by John

Nathan Whitmore continues to push the envelope on DIY brain stimulation. Somewhat above my limited capabilities, we can assume that as the project evolves, the build will get simpler.

BrainKit 1.0 released
To download BrainKit, click here to go to its GitHub page. You can also see an earlier post which lays out some of the concepts behind BrainKit here.

Planning BrainKit started about a year ago when I was thinking about the question “now that putting together the hardware and software to make a relatively inexpensive device to stimulate the brain is basically a solved problem, what is the next major obstacle to the use of noninvasive brain stimulation?” The answer was (and still is) figuring out where in the brain to stimulate to achieve some desired effect.

BrainKit was inspired by this idea, a brain stimulator which also is capable of monitoring brain activity and using statistics to understand the neural correlates of mental states and design stimulation montages more intelligently. For instance, BrainKit can find brain regions that show different patterns of activity in fatigued and alert states—and then allow you to stimulate these regions to see if it affects alertness.

Full article: http://quicktotheratcave.tumblr.com/post/124541990103/brainkit-1-0-released

Can tDCS Make A Talking Horse?

Posted on July 11, 2015 by John

I know I’m going to come off as a hater in this post, but fact is, if tDCS or Electric Stimulation are actually working for you- helping you get to sleep, getting you laid, calming down your horse, or filling your bank account, who am I to judge?

What set me off is the marketing around this Mishka / FisherWallace CES (Cranial Electric Stimulation) device. The FisherWallace device is ‘FDA cleared‘ for the treatment of depression, anxiety, insomnia and chronic pain. You either need a prescription or written authorization from your doctor to order one. Their website is all about doctors and the medical profession. When I saw the Mishka re-brand (website) I was thoroughly confused. What could this edgy NYC clothing company and FisherWallace have in common? Why would FisherWallace, with decades of medical professional product-fit be risking their reputation in the medical community by partnering with Mishka in this sleazy web marketing campaign?

Yes, but why would such an obvious cash grab offend me? I guess it’s just that hundreds of tDCS research papers later I’ve evolved a respect for the science and scientists around tDCS and have become invested in the possibility that someday tDCS or related NIBS (non invasive brain stimulation) will prove effective in helping people. So far, with the exception of some research and first-person reports around tDCS being useful in the treatment of depression (my favorite example), tDCS remains controversial, with little evidence supporting consistent positive results. Nevertheless, the science hasn’t prevented vendors from claiming benefits and selling devices.

So I suppose it took this ad campaign to make me finally realize that a lot about what is going on in the neurostimulation space is…

Hey, we’ve got this little box with lights on it and a couple of harmless electrodes that people put on their heads. How can we make money off of it?

https://vimeo.com/132356086

https://vimeo.com/65903946

Chip Wallace, Happy Halter

Do-It-Yourself Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation | Smart Drug Smarts

Posted on July 8, 2015 by John

Jesse interviews Nathan Whitmore, creator of the open-source project “OpenBrainStim”, an affordable alternative to commercial transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) devices.

Episode 44 – Do-It-Yourself Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation from Smart Drug Smarts on Vimeo.

A little jolt helps the brain get back on track | Vanderbilt.edu

Posted on July 8, 2015 by John

First, participants donned EEG monitors and performed a challenging cognitive control task specifically designed to trip them up. “We saw a beautiful burst of low-frequency activity [from the medial-frontal cortex] right after someone made a mistake,” said Reinhart. “But it was deficient in our patients with schizophrenia.”

In healthy individuals, these theta waves were steady and synchronized, but in people with schizophrenia, the waves were weak and disorganized, suggesting that they were having a harder time processing the mistake. And the subjects’ behavior bore that out—the healthy subjects slowed down by a few milliseconds when they made mistakes and did better in the next round, while the subjects with schizophrenia did not.

After tDCS, the picture was dramatically different. The electrical stimulation to the scalp significantly improved the strength and synchrony of the brain waves in both groups but most notably in people with schizophrenia. “The results of our study clearly indicate that it is possible to restore error-monitoring in people with schizophrenia with tDCS,” said Park.

Source: A little jolt helps the brain get back on track

foc.us firmware 2.0 features

Posted on July 3, 2015 by John

foc.us firmware 2.0 features the following

If you update your foc.us v2 to the latest 2.0 release you will get the following extra features:

polarity menu

session logs + uploading ble api

force reboot (long press)

battery optimized

low battery shutdown

set/get time ble api

improved power-up time

device’s state in ble advertising packet

For further details keep reading or click here for update instructions

tDCS and Tinnitus

Posted on June 28, 2015 by John

Reader Patty asked if there were reports of tDCS being effective in the treatment of tinnitus. As this is an important issue to me as well, I thought I’d collect whatever related links I have to the research in one place. While the results I’ve read here seem inconclusive, if I were one of the 3% of tinnitus sufferers for whom the constant sound is extremely disturbing, I wouldn’t hesitate to try one of the protocols outlined in these studies. If you have information to share about your own experiences with tDCS and tinnitus please post them in a comment.

[Added 11/11/2016] The Effects of Compensatory Auditory Stimulation and High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) on Tinnitus Perception – A Randomized Pilot Study “Effects of HD-tDCS could not be resolved with the current sample size.”
Overview of current status of tinnitus treatment: Living With a Sound You Can’t Turn Off | NYT
Comparing immediate transient tinnitus suppression using tACS and tDCS: A placebo-controlled study (gated) In regard to tDCS, our results obtained confirm previous findings that bifrontal tDCS with the anodal electrode placed over the right DLPFC and the cathodal electrode placed over the left DLPFC can modulate tinnitus annoy-ance and tinnitus loudness.
And this just in (6/30/15 I only have the abstract) Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for the Treatment of Chronic Tinnitus: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Sham Controlled Study Conclusions: Repeated tDCS sessions on the auditory and prefrontal cortex are safe, but do not improve tinnitus. Different tDCS protocols may be beneficial
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Intensity and Duration Effects on Tinnitus Suppression :2 mA for 20 minutes anodal tDCS of LTA
Treatment of chronic tinnitus with repeated sessions of prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation: outcomes from an open-label pilot study:bifrontal tDCS (anode right and cathode left) 1.5 mA, 30 min twice a week
Transient tinnitus suppression induced by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation
A tinnitus/tDCS discussion on Reddit.
Added 7/21/15 Intensity, Duration, and Location of High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Tinnitus Relief (pdf)
Added 11/15/15 “There were no significant long-term beneficial effects following tDCS of the left temporoparietal area.”

tDCS – the bigger picture | Body in Mind

Posted on June 26, 2015 by John

Kerstin Luedtke

Things have moved on from there and luckily we now have a randomised controlled trial with a sufficient sample size (n=135) of patients suffering from chronic low back pain and shown that tDCS – at least in this population and using a paradigm of 2mA for 20 mins on 5 consecutive days over the motor cortex – does nothing to reduce the perceived intensity of back pain or the disability associated with chronic low back pain (Luedtke et al., 2015). The results were not only not statistically significant, there wasn’t even a trend into the right direction

Source: tDCS – the bigger picture – Body in Mind

Researchers’ perspectives on scientific and ethical issues with transcranial direct current stimulation: An international survey : Scientific Reports : Nature Publishing Group

Posted on June 26, 2015 by John

The largest proportion of researchers rated tDCS in research contexts (cognition, motor, affect) as “partly effective” (28-42%) or “mostly effective” (19-33%). Only a small percentage described tDCS as “ineffective” (2-5%) or “absolutely effective” (2-13%; Fig. 1A). Effectiveness ratings were highest for the motor domain (N = 213, mean±SD 1.71 ± 0.77) followed by cognition (N = 218, 1.49 ± 0.69) and affect (N = 143, 1.34 ± 0.68).

Source: Researchers’ perspectives on scientific and ethical issues with transcranial direct current stimulation: An international survey : Scientific Reports : Nature Publishing Group
via: @mancini_flavia

The Maverick of Brain Optimization

Posted on June 25, 2015 by John

Tim Ferris interviews Dr. Adam Gazzaley of the Gazzaley Lab at UC San Francisco.

His recent studies go far beyond mere description — he and his lab are exploring neuroplasticity and how we can optimize cognitive abilities, even in healthy adults. So, what happens when you combine cognitive-focused video games with neurofeedback, magnetic and electrical stimulation, and even performance-enhancing drugs? Well, that’s just one of many things we cover in this conversation

Source: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/06/22/adam-gazzaley/
See Also: http://www.diytdcs.com/2015/01/scientists-uncover-surprising-new-tools-to-rejuvenate-the-brain-ucsf-edu/
Lots more media from the Gazzaley Lab here: http://gazzaleylab.ucsf.edu/select-lectures/

An Evening with the Consciousness Hackers | The New Yorker

Posted on June 23, 2015 by John

For the evening’s first demonstration, Siegel helped attach electrodes to the temples of Adam Goyer, a volunteer test subject, then cued Eugene Sinkevich, an electrical engineer, to start the current. “We are at the frontier,” Siegel said, looking out at the crowd as no more than two milliamps ran through Goyer’s head. “We’ll be able to tell our kids that we used to hook up arbitrary electrical signals to our brain.”Goyer sat still for several minutes, flinching only slightly. Then it was over. How did he feel?“First, let me say I’m really nervous about putting electricity through my brain. The first wave felt like a tingling on my forehead, and I guess I’m smarter afterward, sure. Then the second wave of tACS [transcranial alternating-current stimulation, a type of stimulation in which the flow of the charge varies] I kinda felt woozy, not in a bad way, but kind of like I’m on a boat. Then the third one, I definitely had some flickering, some eye flickering: in the outside of your eyes it’s like a flash, like a strobe.”

Source: An Evening with the Consciousness Hackers – The New Yorker

The benefits of mind-wandering | timeslive.co.za