Stimulating the brain with rapid pulses of electricity can improve your ability to perform mental arithmetic for up to six months, a new study has shown.

一项新的研究显示，用电流速脉冲刺激大脑可以提高你的心算能力，效果可长达六个月。

For anyone who struggles with dividing the bill at the end of a meal, there is now a way to give your brain a boost.

对于那些餐后与账单苦苦斗争的人们来说，这是给你的大脑一个推动力的好方法。

Scientists have shown they can improve people’s ability to perform mental arithmetic for up to six months by giving them a short course of harmless electrical stimulation on their scalps.

科学家已经表示，他们能够通过无害的电流冲刺激头皮，提高人们长达六个月的心算能力。

Volunteers who received rapid pulses of electrical current – equivalent to that from an AA battery – for just 20 minutes a day for five days saw their ability to solve calculations improve by 28 per cent.

持续五天每天20分钟接受电流刺激（相当于AA电池）的志愿者，发现他们的计算能力提升了28%。

The enhancement, which made them faster at carrying out sums and other mathematical tasks, lasted for up to six months after receiving the electrical treatment.

这种提升在接受电击后持续了六个月，使得志愿者在计算总数时和其他数学工作中更快速。

The researchers, who are based at the University of Oxford, believe stimulating the brain in this way could be used to help people who struggle with performing mental arithmetic.

主要来自牛津大学的研究人员相信，以这种方式刺激大脑可以帮助那些在心算上苦苦挣扎的人们。

Around a fifth of the population are thought to struggle with mental arithmetic while one in 20 suffer from dyscalculia – a learning disability involving numbers that is similar to dyslexia.

据悉约有五分之一的人在与心算作斗争，而二十分之一的人忍受着计算障碍，这是一种涉及数字的学习障碍，与语言障碍类似。

Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh, a cognitive neuroscientist who led the study, said he hoped to develop devices that could be used to help students in classrooms and elderly people.

负责这个课题的是认知神经系统科学家瑞欧-科恩-卡多什博士，他表示希望开发出帮助学生和年长者的装置。

He said: “The amount of electricity we are applying is very small and totally painless. Most people asked us if the device was even working because they couldn’t feel it.The current appears to enhance the neurons ability to process information by making them more efficient.

他说：“我们用的电流量非常小，而且完全不疼。很多人都问我们装置是否在工作，因为他们感觉不到。这个电流似乎提高了神经元处理信息并使其更有效的能力。”

“We hope that these techniques will one day be used in the clinic, classrooms and even at home to help those who struggle with certain cognitive tasks.We are looking at using stimulation with educational games to help a child who is falling behind in class or to help elderly patients.”

“我们希望这些技术有可以用于临床、教室甚至家中，来帮助那些在认知工作中苦苦挣扎的人们。我们考虑和教育游戏一起使用这种刺激，来帮助班里落后的小朋友或者帮助年长的患者。”

Dr Cohen Kadosh and his team, whose work is published in the journal of Current Biology, asked 25 students to carry out calculations and learn mathematical facts – such as a times table – for 20 minutes each day.

科恩-卡多什博士和他的团队要求25个学生每天进行计算并学习数学实例20分钟（例如时间表）。这一他们的成果已经在《当代生物》期刊上发表。

Just over half of the students were given the electrical current – known as transcranial random noise stimulation – as they performed the tasks, while the others were not.

当执行任务时，略过半的学生接受了电流刺激，这个过程被称为经颅随机嗓音刺激，而其他人没有。

Those that were treated with the electricity, which was applied by attaching two electrodes to their scalp, improved in their ability to perform mental arithmetic after a five days.

那些接受了电流刺激的人，五天后处理心算问题能力有所提高，他们在实验时在头皮上连着两个电极。

They were found to be up to 28 per cent better when asked to carry out calculations compared to those who had not received any electrical current.When they were tested again six months later, the improvements were found to still be there.

研究发现，他们在被要求进行计算时，比那些没有接受电流刺激的学生要好28%。当他们六个月后进行测验时，这种提高依然存在。

The electrical stimulation works by increasing the activity of neurons in the brain, helping to train them much like a muscle can be trained to become stronger and tire less easily.

这种电流刺激通过提高大脑神经元的活跃性来起作用，帮助来训练那些神经元，类似于肌肉可以被锻炼得更强壮并更不容易累那样。

Over time this helps to improve the efficiency of the neurons so they too can perform tasks more easily.

久而久之，这有助于提高神经元的效率，从而他们可以更轻松的来执行任务。

Dr Cohen Kadosh warned, however, that people should not attempt to apply electrical stimulation themselves as they could do more harm than good.

然而，科恩-卡多什教授也警告说，人们不能自己来使用电流刺激，因为这样做弊大于利。

He added: “Our data shows that we may be effecting molecular aspects of the neurons which may explain why there is this long lasting affect.”

他补充道：“我们的数据表明，我们可以影响神经元的分子特征，这可以解释为什么会有持久的效果。”