On the Same Wavelength: Face-to-Face Communication Increases Interpersonal Ne...
[Popular science] Want People To Look Hotter? Get Your Brain Zapped
1. 6/29/13 Quick TDCS Will Make You See Hotter People | Popular Science
www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/want-everyone-around-you-seem-better-looking-just-get-your-brain-zapped 1/2
Previous Article: What Does
Cancer Smell Like? New Devices
Diagnose Patients By Scent
Next Article: The Miami Heat's
Stunning Season In One Image
[Infographic]
Want People To Look Hotter? Get Your Brain Zapped
4 COMMENTS
ELSEWHERE ON POPSCI.COM
Discovered: Giant DolphinLike Sea Monster That Ate Dinosaurs
Who Or What Left This 60,000Ton Ancient Artifact Under The Sea?
A Protein Killer Could Treat All Cancers, and Possibly All Illnesses
Men: Wearing A TShirt With The Letter T On It Makes You More Attractive
Man Diagnosed 'Comatose' For 23 Years Was Actually Conscious All Along
Gallery: The Twentieth Century's BestKept Military Secrets
FROM AROUND THE WEB
Five Photos You've Gotta See This Week: May 31 (Red Bull)
Five Photos You've Gotta See This Week: June 21 (Red Bull)
Probiotics Found In Yogurt Affects Brain Function In Women (redOrbit)
Atlantis Found In Brazil Via Discovery Of Ancient Granite Rock (redOrbit)
5 Signs You Might Be at Risk for Diabetes (Caring.com)
It’s Official: The Sea Shepherds Are Pirates (Center for Consumer Freedom)
By Colin Lecher Posted 06.24.2013 at 12:30 pm
After getting a shock to the brain, subjects in a recent study rated the people around them as more attractive.
Angelina in Red Lipstick Dan MacMedan/WireImage
To the list of curious things getting your brain zapped can do, add this: make the people around you seem more attractive.
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology recently studied that effect by giving 99 study participants 15 minutes of transcranial direct current stimulation, or TDCS, an
electrodebased, noninvasive way of juicing the brain. (A company is also marketing TDCS as a very sketchy means of getting better at video games.) The participants got an
fMRI scan before and after the brain shock, and were shown faces while in the fMRI machine. After the zapping, the participants rated the faces as more attractive. The fMRI,
meanwhile, showed increases in activity in the patients' prefrontal area and midbrain, as well as a higher output of dopamine.
The midbrain is a source of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with rating of attractiveness, as well as a long list of neurological disorders. So this study was a proof of
concept: TDCS can be used as a noninvasive way of activating the midbrain, up to the point of influencing behavior. The findings could have implications for people suffering from
neurological disorders schizophrenia, depression, and Parkinson's.
Maybe it can help you be nicer to your coworkers, too.
[NBC News]
Recommended by
Wonder
06/24/13 at 12:51 pm
So is this article suggestion we all go out and get our brain zapped for the
benefit of helping the social media or to help those with particular mental
disorders or both?
Link to this comment