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Stimulating the brain with rapid pulses of electricity can improve your ability to perform mental arithmetic for up to six months, a new study has shown.
一項新的研究顯示，用電流速脈沖刺激大腦可以提高你的心算能力，效果可長達六個月。
For anyone who struggles with dividing the bill at the end of a meal, there is now a way to give your brain a boost.
對于那些餐后與賬單苦苦斗爭的人們來說，這是給你的大腦一個推動力的好方法。
Scientists have shown they can improve people’s ability to perform mental arithmetic for up to six months by giving them a short course of harmless electrical stimulation on their scalps.
科學家已經表示，他們能夠通過無害的電流沖刺激頭皮，提高人們長達六個月的心算能力。
Volunteers who received rapid pulses of electrical current – equivalent to that from an AA battery – for just 20 minutes a day for five days saw their ability to solve calculations improve by 28 per cent.
持續五天每天20分鐘接受電流刺激（相當于AA電池）的志愿者，發現他們的計算能力提升了28%。
The enhancement, which made them faster at carrying out sums and other mathematical tasks, lasted for up to six months after receiving the electrical treatment.
這種提升在接受電擊后持續了六個月，使得志愿者在計算總數時和其他數學工作中更快速。
The researchers, who are based at the University of Oxford, believe stimulating the brain in this way could be used to help people who struggle with performing mental arithmetic.
主要來自牛津大學的研究人員相信，以這種方式刺激大腦可以幫助那些在心算上苦苦掙扎的人們。
Around a fifth of the population are thought to struggle with mental arithmetic while one in 20 suffer from dyscalculia – a learning disability involving numbers that is similar to dyslexia.
據悉約有五分之一的人在與心算作斗爭，而二十分之一的人忍受著計算障礙，這是一種涉及數字的學習障礙，與語言障礙類似。
Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh, a cognitive neuroscientist who led the study, said he hoped to develop devices that could be used to help students in classrooms and elderly people.
負責這個課題的是認知神經系統科學家瑞歐-科恩-卡多什博士，他表示希望開發出幫助學生和年長者的裝置。
He said: “The amount of electricity we are applying is very small and totally painless. Most people asked us if the device was even working because they couldn’t feel it.The current appears to enhance the neurons ability to process information by making them more efficient.
他說：“我們用的電流量非常小，而且完全不疼。很多人都問我們裝置是否在工作，因為他們感覺不到。這個電流似乎提高了神經元處理信息并使其更有效的能力。”
“We hope that these techniques will one day be used in the clinic, classrooms and even at home to help those who struggle with certain cognitive tasks.We are looking at using stimulation with educational games to help a child who is falling behind in class or to help elderly patients.”
“我們希望這些技術有一天可以用于臨床、教室甚至家中，來幫助那些在認知工作中苦苦掙扎的人們。我們考慮和教育游戲一起使用這種刺激，來幫助班里落后的小朋友或者幫助年長的患者。”
Dr Cohen Kadosh and his team, whose work is published in the journal of Current Biology, asked 25 students to carry out calculations and learn mathematical facts – such as a times table – for 20 minutes each day.
科恩-卡多什博士和他的團隊要求25個學生每天進行計算并學習數學實例20分鐘（例如時間表）。這一他們的成果已經在《當代生物》期刊上發表。
Just over half of the students were given the electrical current – known as transcranial random noise stimulation – as they performed the tasks, while the others were not.
當執行任務時，略過半的學生接受了電流刺激，這個過程被稱為經顱隨機嗓音刺激，而其他人沒有。
Those that were treated with the electricity, which was applied by attaching two electrodes to their scalp, improved in their ability to perform mental arithmetic after a five days.
那些接受了電流刺激的人，五天后處理心算問題能力有所提高，他們在實驗時在頭皮上連著兩個電極。
They were found to be up to 28 per cent better when asked to carry out calculations compared to those who had not received any electrical current.When they were tested again six months later, the improvements were found to still be there.
研究發現，他們在被要求進行計算時，比那些沒有接受電流刺激的學生要好28%。當他們六個月后進行測驗時，這種提高依然存在。
The electrical stimulation works by increasing the activity of neurons in the brain, helping to train them much like a muscle can be trained to become stronger and tire less easily.
這種電流刺激通過提高大腦神經元的活躍性來起作用，幫助來訓練那些神經元，類似于肌肉可以被鍛煉得更強壯并更不容易累那樣。
Over time this helps to improve the efficiency of the neurons so they too can perform tasks more easily.
久而久之，這有助于提高神經元的效率，從而他們可以更輕松的來執行任務。
Dr Cohen Kadosh warned, however, that people should not attempt to apply electrical stimulation themselves as they could do more harm than good.
然而，科恩-卡多什教授也警告說，人們不能自己來使用電流刺激，因為這樣做弊大于利。
He added: “Our data shows that we may be effecting molecular aspects of the neurons which may explain why there is this long lasting affect.”
他補充道：“我們的數據表明，我們可以影響神經元的分子特征，這可以解釋為什么會有持久的效果。”
