Thread: Published in Nature Neuroscience: 77% induction rate with electrodes on the scalp at 40 Hertz

It's very early doors, but can anyone start to give me an idea of how I might (affordably) create and experiment with a device similar to the ones used in the research without, y'know, frazzling my brain?

Originally Posted by Bobblehat

It's very early doors, but can anyone start to give me an idea of how I might (affordably) create and experiment with a device similar to the ones used in the research without, y'know, frazzling my brain?

The project would run into the hundreds of euro's/dollars.

A TCDS device and EEG device would be required, and you would have to link them and make them co-operate, which probably means getting an extension to the EEG device
The TCDS device would probably cost around 80-200 dollars depending on where you get it, and the quality of the components. I believe there is a nice self development kit flying around but it would have to modified to get this to work.
The eeg will cost a similar amount depending on whether you make it or not.

Making an EEG device is pretty easy when you look into it, there sites like these Building an EEG at home

Go to the /r/TCDS subreddit to learn about making a TCDS device, those guys know a fair deal about it.

And then you would need to have a software (or hardware, but this would again run up the costs. Perhaps by using arduino) interface between the eeg and TCDS so that the tcds device is pulsed a few times each time you enter a dream after perhaps three hours of sleep. So you would need to know/learn a programming language, or get a redditor etc to write it for you.

All in all not a very easy project, you need to acquire a good understanding of electronics, the programming language at play, what part of the brain you are trying to activate (DLPFC, or just the frontal cortex in general etc) and you need the money to buy high quality equipment you know will not fail.

A single milliamp over 1.5-2.0 millamps, and you are putting yourself at risk for brain damage. The main risk lies in that you will be asleep, you can't actively change anything on the device or check it's status.

Just to be sure, you'd want multiple redundancy checks, and a competent program running.

EDIT: Actually it seems that allan hobson and his crew used a tACS device (alternating current, not direct current TCDS). So you will probably run into difficulties there, if I understand correctly they use this device because it can modulate brain frequencies in the frontal lobes better than a tcds device. I'm not sure about this but a tcds device might require that brain region is already lit up, while a tACS or TMS device can light up a region regardless.

As demonstrated, my knowledge on the subject is actually quite shallow. That's surprising considering how long I've been following it, it takes a very significant amount of time and interest to get anywhere.