An eminent mathematician alerts us to this news report, and asks: “Would you want to receive a mild shock? Well if you were a college student failing math, and you read this report, you might. So the question then becomes: Is this considered cheating?” The report, by Charles Choi of Live Science, says:
Zap, You’re Smart! Mild Brain Shock Stimulates Math Skills
Stimulating the brain with a weak current of electricity can enhance a person’s math skills for up to six months without influencing other mental functions, new research finds…. “I am certainly not advising people to go around giving themselves electric shocks, but we are extremely excited by the potential of our findings,” said researcher Roi Cohen Kadosh, a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford in England….