Let's start with this: Don't try this at home kids. Actually, don't try this at home anybody.
In one of the more unusual video game-related studies to emerge recently, a DARPA-funded experiment has found that running electricity through your scalp can help make you a better game player.
Also, it might just improve your ability to learn and your mental sharpness in general. Then again, it might make you see funny lights and feel a burning sensation on your scalp.
Researchers at the University of New Mexico conducted the study on a group volunteers, attaching wet sponges to their right temples. Those sponges delivered two milliamps of current from a gadget powered by a 9-volt battery as the volunteers played "DARWARS Ambush!" — a video game designed to train US soldiers heading to Iraq.
According to a report in Nature News, volunteers who got the 2 milliamp "electric tickle" to the scalp showed twice as much improvement in playing the game after only a short amount of training as those receiving one-twentieth the amount of current.
The technique, called "transcranial direct-current stimulation" (tDCS), has been studied since the 1800s as a way to treat neurological conditions but has been making something of an academic come-back what with its potential ability to improve learning and cognition. Nature News reports that other studies using tDCS have shown improvements in working memory, word association and complex problem-solving.
Nature News also reports that some people have even begun trying their own experiments at home:
Discussions are already appearing on the Internet: buy a 9-volt battery, some wire and a resistor, and you're theoretically there. One person, hoping to improve his concentration, was alarmed by the flashing lights he experienced — a commonly reported side effect, along with burning or itching at the site of the electrode. "I probably won't be doing this again," he said in a message posted online.
With that, I return to the warning I started with. Don't try this at home. Seriously.
While every gamer would probably enjoy a boost to their skill level, running electric wires to your skull is probably not the safest (or most enjoyable) way to achieve that boost.
(Thanks to The Escapist and Nature News for the heads up)
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Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things right here on Twitter .
