Tuesday, December 16, 2014
TMS for entertainment
Transcranial magnetic stimulation has been used for years to diagnose
and treat neural disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer's, and depression.
Soon the medical technique could be applied to virtual reality and
entertainment. Neuroscientist Jeffrey Zacks writes, "it's quite likely
that some kind of electromagnetic brain stimulation for entertainment will become practical
in the not-too-distant future." Imagine an interactive movie where
special effects are enhanced by zapping parts of the brain from outside
to make the action more vivid. Before brain stimulation makes it to the
masses, however, it has plenty of technical and safety hurdles to
overcome.