Brain stimulation during sleep does not enhance memory for learned material

“Learn while you sleep” has been the claim of snake oil salesmen since the 1950s. The old pseudoscience methods involved listening to tapes and records. From a 1958 article byLester David:Max Sherover, president of the Linguaphone Institute of New York ... coined the word “dormiphonics, ” defining it as a “new scientific method that makes quick relaxed learning possible, awake or asleep.” Dormiphonics, declares Mr. Sherover, works by “repeated concentrated impact of selected material on the conscious and subconscious mind.”An “experiment” was conducted at the Tulare County Prison, where 100 convicts “volunteered to act as guinea pigs ” (considered completely unethical by today ' s standards). During sleep, they were subjected to low-volume recordings that exhorted them to be better human beings: “Love shall rule your life. You shall love God, your family and others. You shall do unto others as you want others to do unto you. . .” The low voice also warned them away from the evils of alcohol.Knight Education Recordings (1960s)a commercially available product of the eraEven earlier, thePsycho-Phone (Salinger, 1927) played wax cylinders with different self-help messages, e.g., “Prosperity” and “Life Extension” on a phonograph while the unwitting customer slept. TheCummings Center Blog has a great post on this odd contraption. Salinger sold the machines for the whopping price of $235 (the equivalent of $3,250 in 2017). He didn ' t needKickstart...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs