This is a very interesting preliminary finding, and I promptly shared the article link, with hat tip to Hacker News, among a Facebook private group populated by many neuroscience researchers. But the finding needs a look more replication and refinement,
before I'll stick the electrodes over my head. For one thing, I wonder what author neuroscientists who attended the big conference where this finding was briefly reported have had time to dig into the details of how other neuroanatomical models of learning compare to the implicit model here.
It definitely is a very interesting finding, but if it wasn't placebo controlled, then its not really demonstrating anything. Bear in mind that deep brain stimulation is placebo responsive, which suggests that this could be easily too. That being said, the structural changes are quite interesting. I suppose i'll have to wait for the full paper, and there's no mention of sample size in the article either.
"The researchers reported that TDCS gave a six-times baseline boost to the amplitude of a brain wave generated in response to stimulating a sensory nerve in the arm. The boost was not seen when mock TDCS was used, which produced a similar sensation on the scalp, but was ineffective in exciting brain tissue."
This seems to indicate that it was placebo controlled, but I am also interested to see the published paper.
http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html
before I'll stick the electrodes over my head. For one thing, I wonder what author neuroscientists who attended the big conference where this finding was briefly reported have had time to dig into the details of how other neuroanatomical models of learning compare to the implicit model here.