Home-made magnetic brain stimulation
I’ve written before about home-brewed brain imaging via the OpenEEG project at SourceForge.net. Now, please welcome the Open-rTMS. As noted previously, rTMS, or repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is a technique that uses variable magnetic fields to stimulate specific areas of the brain for various ends, e.g. to treat depression, relieve pain, even enhance intelligence and creativity. Because of safety regulations, it takes forever before medical hardware is made available to the public. But, thanks to SourceForge, you will not only be able make your own EEG to monitor the magnetic fields in your brain, but also an rTMS to mess with them. Naturally, tweaking with new technology has its risks, in this case brain seizures, though these dangers are low when basic precautions are observed. All in all, the OpenEEG/Open-rTMS projects are revolutionary in that they open a vast new unmapped horizon, allowing anybody to explore and experiment with new mental states, advancing our understanding of our understanding.