Deep Brain Cognitive Enhancement: The Latest News

The search for new methods of cognitive enhancement has just reached new depths.  Researchers in Austria and the UK report exciting new evidence that a form of noninvasive deep brain stimulation enhances the brain’s ability to do arithmetic. 

"With just five days of cognitive training and noninvasive, painless brain stimulation, we were able to bring about long-lasting improvements in cognitive and brain functions," says Roi Cohen Kadosh of the University of Oxford and lead author of the report that appears in the May 16, 2013 issue of Current Biology.  His comments were provided by the journal.

Photo Credit.  Photo by Ad Meskens of an original oil painting by Laurent de La Hyre (French, 1606-1656).  The title of the painting is Allegory of Arithmetic (Allegorie van de rekenkunde) and it dates to about 1650.  The original painting is in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.  It was photographed on 18 July 2007 by Ad Meskens, who has made it freely available with proper credit.

In this study, the team used a form of noninvasive deep brain stimulation known as “transcranial random noise stimulation” or TRNS.  The TRNS input was combined with more traditional math training and drills.  Twenty-five young adults, males and females, were divided into two groups, one receiving math training with the TRNS and the other receiving math training combined with a “sham” version of TRNS, a kind of placebo. 

Not only did those who received TRNS do well immediately, but the benefits lasted for at least six months.  In addition, brain monitors detected different brain activity for those receiving TRNS.  This suggests that TRNS modifies brain function.

According to Cohen Kadosh, "If we can enhance mathematics, therefore, there is a good chance that we will be able to enhance simpler cognitive functions."

In the paper’s conclusion, the authors state that TRNS “can enhance learning with respect to high-level cognitive functions, namely algorithmic manipulation and factual recall in mental arithmetic. When this learning is based on deep-level cognitive processing, as is the case for calculation arithmetic, such enhancements are extremely long-lived both behaviorally and physiologically.

Then they sum up with these words:

Both the behavioral and physiological changes displayed extreme longevity, spanning a period of 6 months, but only when learning involved deep-level cognitive processing. By its demonstration of such longevity and, for the calculation task, generalization to new, unlearned material, the present study highlights TRNS as a promising tool for enhancing high-level cognition and facilitating learning. These findings have significant scientific and translational implications for cognitive enhancement in both healthy individuals and patients suffering from disorders characterized by arithmetic deficits.

The paper, Snowball et al.: "Long-Term Enhancement of Brain Function and Cognition Using Cognitive Training and Brain Stimulation," appears in the May 16, 2013 issue of Current Biology. 

Brain Renewal? Enhancing Aging Brains

An aging mind may be a fountain of wisdom, but an aging brain is not very good as a source of new neurons. As we age, quite apart from diseases like Alzheimer’s, we lose our ability to remember and to concentrate. It seems that in order to remain sharp, the brain has to regenerate itself by forming new neurons. While neurogenesis continues throughout life, it declines markedly in old age.

Photo credit: published under GNU Free Documentation License, uploaded 23 Sept 2007 by Ccrai008.

Research published today may suggest a way to change that. Scientists at the German Cancer Center in Heidelberg report on their work with mice. They identified a molecule called Dickkopf-1 or Dkk1 in the brains of old mice. When they blocked the production of Dkk1, old mouse brains began to create new brain cells.

“We released a brake on neuronal birth, thereby resetting performance in spatial memory tasks back to levels observed in younger animals,” said Ana Martin-Villalba in a press release from Cell Press, which published the results.

It turns out that clinical trials are already underway involving antibodies for Dkk1. These trials are not related to neurogenesis but to prevention of osteoporosis. What is learned there, however, may be directly helpful to the possibility that blocking Dkk1 is feasible, safe, and effective in countering the effects of declining neurogenesis, which includes both memory loss and depression.

The report concludes with these comments: “Our study raises the possibility that neutralization of Dkk1 might be beneficial in counteracting depression-like behavior and improving cognitive decline in the aging population….The contribution of newly generated young neurons to memory and affective behavior opens tantalizing opportunities for the prevention of affective impairments and age-related cognitive decline.”

These words are carefully chosen, first to caution against undue optimism but also to steer away from the idea of “human enhancement.” But unless we think of aging as a disease, what is envisioned here is clearly a form of enhancement. Normally aging human beings may, someday in the future, be treated not because they have a disease such as Alzheimer’s but because their memory is not as sharp as it once was or as retentive as they would like.

But labeling this an “enhancement” is not likely to dampen public interest. On the contrary, the enhancment potential of blocking Dkk1 is the very thing that is most likely to drive public support.

And that suggests we need to consider once again just what it is we say we do not like about enhancement.

The article is entitled "Loss of Dickkopf-1 restores neurogenesis in old age and counteracts cognitive decline" and appears in the February 7, 2013 issue of Cell Stem Cell.