By 2015, Smart Phone Accessory Will Zap Your Brain to Calm You Down and Help You Focus

By early 2015, a technology startup plans to market a smart phone accessory that will allow you to zap your brain with an electrical current, helping you feel energized or relaxed, depending on your needs, for extended periods of time. The company, called Thync, was developed by professor Jamie Tyler at Arizona State University and has amassed over $13 million in venture capital to bring its product to market.

The device capitalizes on research into transcranial direct-current stimulation (TDCS) which, though not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has been shown to help individuals learn new information more easily by running electric current through certain parts of the brain.

“In Thync’s device, a barely perceptible electrical current is applied to the skin just behind the ear for the Red Bull effect, and on the temple and back of the neck for the relaxing effect.”

In a 100-person study using Thync’s device, a majority of participants confirmed the calming effects of the smart-phone accessory. Within minutes of stimulation, individuals reported a change in sensation as powerful as anything short of a narcotic.

In his Big Think interview, the best-selling author Steven Kotler discusses hypofrontality— literally the slowing of the brain’s prefrontal cortex—and how it allows one to enter an optimal state of consciousness, known as flow: