Novices 'Download' Pilots' Brainwaves, Learn To Fly

For the first time, scientists have found that stimulating the brain could accelerate learning. Matthew Phillips and his team from Malibu, Calif.-based HRL Information and System Sciences Laboratory used a brain-computer interface called transcranial direct current stimulation to transmit the recorded brainwave patterns from six commercial and military pilots to novices learning to fly. The novices received the brainwaves from a rubber cap embedded with electrodes. These non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) caps are commonly used in brainwave research and are able to detect and transmit brainwave activity through the skull. Phillips and his team recruited thirty-two right-handed people for the study.