Caffeine-fueled cram sessions are routine occurrences on any
college campus. But what if there was a better, safer way to learn new or
difficult material more quickly? What if “thinking caps” were real?
In a new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience,
Vanderbilt psychologists Robert Reinhart, a Ph.D. candidate, and Geoffrey
Woodman, assistant professor of psychology, show that it is possible to
selectively manipulate our ability to learn through the application of a mild
electrical current to the brain, and that this effect can be enhanced or
depressed depending on the direction of the current.