Rewire Your Brain on a Budget

Pop the letters t, D, C, and S into Amazon (if you can get over the moral quandary of donating to Jeff Bezos) and you could own a machine that can alter the electrical activity inside your mind. Indeed, the top hit on the site, the catchily named ‘Pro tDCS Device Kit – Dual DC + AC Modes, Broad Dose (4mA), Rechargeable, Bonus Case’ can be purchased for just £104 — considerably less than what the average student can expect to spend during Freshers’ Week based on data from UCAS (I’ve checked).

The mechanisms behind a tDCS machine are deceptively simple; it might not seem like a particularly interesting thing to spend your money on at first. The device consists of two oppositely charged electrodes which can be attached to your head to apply an electrical current to the brain. However, this current is capable of exciting or inhibiting various brain structures or, in other words, temporarily altering your brain activity itself. The technology has been found to improve symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders, most commonly depression. While we know it does this by acting on regions of the brain involved in pain management (including the insula and somatosensory cortex), how this happens is still being investigated. Furthermore, the longer-term effects of this practice are only just beginning to come to light; a 2023 study published in Nature (A. Jog, et al.) found structural changes in grey matter i.e. increased plasticity, associated with long-term use of the device. In short, yes, you could be rewiring your brain. 

The commercial availability of tDCS means that any individual can self-administer treatment should they be experiencing symptoms of a neuropsychiatric disorder. If they’re brave enough, that is. The tDCS device I found on Amazon comes with a disclaimer, namely that: “Health effects will vary by individual. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” Fortunately, if you’re looking to undertake the treatment, there are options that inspire more confidence. One of the leading options in the UK is a device manufactured by the company Flow Neuroscience. Opening Flow’s website is like receiving a warm hug, if that warm hug were being given by a small device that looks like a pair of headphones strapped to your forehead. The homepage is full of serene and comical-looking people who appear to be listening to music through their skulls, presumably being effectively treated by Flow. Right at the top is a different kind of tagline than the one I found on Amazon: “Stop suffering from depression, feel alive again.”

These two products offer contrasting visions of what using tDCS means, and a lot of that can be attributed to the quality of the items offered. Flow is a well-researched supplier to the NHS. The discrepancies between them, however, highlight some important considerations when it comes to making such a product available for commercial use.

While it's clear that tDCS works, it remains unclear exactly how or why — a troubling fact that cannot easily be ignored. The current scarcity of research properly addressing long-term effects (Jog et al.’s research was concentrated on a period of 12 days) leaves something of a question mark hanging over the technology. While the idea may be uncomfortable to associate with medical treatment, it is worth remembering that, to an extent, our use of tDCS as a treatment is primarily rooted in our confidence in solid evidence of its efficacy rather than a comprehensive grasp of its underlying mechanisms.

Image by Wikipedia Commons