Neuro-X Research Featured in Popular Science Magazine
Too impatient to meditate? A mild shock to the scalp could help.
The benefits of being mindful take time, but there might be a way to speed them up.
By Dana G. Smith December 19, 2018
But despite its seeming simplicity (just empty your mind and focus on your breathing) and potential benefits, meditation is much easier said than done. A small cadre of researchers is exploring whether a technology called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can help make meditation easier and get more people to do it regularly. All you have to do is put two electrodes on your forehead and deliver a mild shock to your brain.
Most people who try meditating quit, says Bashar Badran, a neuroscientist at the US Army Research Lab and co-founder of the company Bodhi NeuroTech that's pairing meditation with tDCS. "They'll put on some headphones with an app and they'll try it and they'll say, 'oh I didn't feel anything,' and they'll quit."