There is growing consensus that the cerebellum (a brain structure typically involved in movement and balance) is involved in thinking and reasoning (i.e., cognition). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a method for electrically stimulating the brain, with the potential to alter brain functions, including those underlying thinking and reasoning.
Work in this area by Research Fellow Paul Pope has been featured on the website JoVE (the Journal of Visualized Experiments) - the world's first peer reviewed scientific video journal.
The video illustrates a procedure for enhancing cognition using transcranial direct current stimulation of the cerebellum. In short, performance on tests of Maths and English were improved after cathodal stimulation, but only during tasks that the participants rated as difficult, and not easy. Performance was unchanged after anodal or sham stimulation. These findings demonstrate how the cerebellum (presumably via connections with a frontal brain region for cognition) can enhance performance during difficult tests of Maths and English.
View the video on JoVE