中評社香港2月11日電／澳大利亞科學家發明了一種“思考帽”，對人腦進行微量通電，能夠促進創意思考。
科學家指出，戴上這個所謂的“思考帽”（thinking cap）接受一項簡單算術測試的人，其表現顯著加強。在接受這項算術測試的60人當中，戴著“思考帽”作答並完成測試的人，比沒有使用“思考帽”的人多了三倍。
聯合早報報道，這個由悉尼大學才智中心（Centre for the Mind）的主任斯奈德教授和博士研究生Richard Chi發明的“思考帽”，一邊壓抑和知識及記憶力有關聯的左腦，一邊刺激進行創意思考的右腦，讓人們思考問題時能夠跳出舊框框。
斯奈德說：“你不能在溫書時使用這個儀器，或用它來加強記憶。但如果你想要在思考問題時能夠跳出舊框框，就可把它戴上。”
他表示，發明這個儀器的靈感來自那些在意外中腦部受傷的人。這些人在發生意外後左腦受損，但他們的創意卻突然間提高了。
斯奈德指出，科學家使用“思考帽”進行研究已長達十年，但這是他們首次用微弱的電流刺激大腦，以便提升人們的思考能力。他說，“思考帽”可在藝術領域和解決問題方面發揮功能。
'Thinking Cap' Designed to Promote Creativity
The new device passes low levels of electricity through the brain to try and help wearers think more clearly.
- Thu Feb 10, 2011 08:47 AM ET
Content provided by AFP
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- Australian scientists have developed a cap to wear over the head that is meant to promote creativity.
- The cap works by passing low levels of electricity through the brain.
- The goal is to suppress past mental templates to see situations as they really appear.
Australian scientists have developed a device that they believe promotes creativity in the brain. Click to enlarge this image.
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Scientists in Australia say they are encouraged by initial results of a revolutionary "thinking cap" that aims to promote creativity by passing low levels of electricity through the brain.
The device, which consists of two conductors fastened to the head by a rubber strap, significantly boosted results in a simple arithmetic test, they said.
Three times as many people who wore the "thinking cap" were able to complete the test, compared to those who did not use the equipment. Sixty people took part in total.
Allan Snyder, director of the University of Sydney's Center for the Mind, said the device worked by suppressing the left side of the brain, associated with knowledge, and stimulating the right side, linked to creativity.
"You wouldn't use this to study or to help your memory," Snyder said. "You would use this if you wanted to look at a problem anew.
"If you wanted to look at the world, just briefly, with a child's view, if you wanted to look outside the box."
He said goal was to suppress mental templates gathered through life experiences to help users see problems and situations as they really appear, rather than through the prism of earlier knowledge.
Snyder added that the work was inspired by accident victims who experienced a sudden surge in creativity after damaging the left side of their brains.
"We know that from certain types of brain damage and abnormalities or injuries, people who suddenly have damage to the left temporal lobe will burst out in the arts or other types of creative activities," he said.
Snyder said the device had been in use by scientists for a decade, but this was the first study into how current passing through the brain could amplify insight.
He said the "thinking cap" had potential applications in the arts and problem-solving, although the science remained in its infancy.
"The dream is that one day we may be able to stimulate the brain in a particular way to give you, just momentarily, an unfiltered view of the world," Snyder said
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