London, Sept 16 (ANI): Stroke patients with brain damage could be made to recover more quickly by applying a small current to a specific part of their brain, UK researchers say.
Researcher Heidi Johansen-Berg says that in just five years, we will have 'thinking caps' that can be worn at home and used to wake up white matter damaged by stroke, reports the Daily Mail.
The headsets could also be used to make healthy people brainier or produce better sportsmen, the report said.
Even children learning to play the piano may benefit from a flash of electricity to the brain, the British Science Festival heard.
Experiments show that the technique, which involves passing a gentle electrical current through the brain, improves movement and memory.
But it is thought that the device - effectively a large battery and two electrodes - could also be used to boost vision and speech.
Ten people who had suffered a stroke at least six months earlier and 18 healthy people were asked to practise a computer game that involved squeezing a stick to control the movement of a bar on the screen.
Scans showed that the healthy people's brains did less work the better they got at it. But the stroke patients' brains became more active, suggesting the damaged cells were working harder.
It is thought that the current stimulates the release of brain chemicals that strengthen vital connection between brain cells. (ANI)
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