Electrical Current Can Unlock The Seriously Good Drugs In Your Brain
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation JanneM via FlickrOr, how to get high on electrodes. Trying to get high but don't want to go through the hassle of conducting monetary transactions with some friend of a friend who may or may not be giving you what you think you asked for? Try tapping the opiate-like painkillers that you already own. University of Michigan researchers have figured out how to use non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to coax the brain into releasing its endogenous opioids--the most powerful natural painkillers that the human body keeps stashed onboard for only those worst-case scenarios. Generally, those scenarios involve massive, life-threatening trauma of some kind (and hence you can't really kick back and enjoy the morphine-like ride). But via tDCS--which basically allows very small amounts of current applied precisely to the outside of your scalp to manipulate the neurons inside your brain--the researchers were able to trick...