Unleashing your inner Shakespeare could be just a few jolts of electricity away . Researchers in North Carolina claim that zapping the brain with a mild electric current can boost creativity by nearly eight per cent . They tested their theory using a 10-Hertz current on the brain 's of 20 volunteers to stimulate the brain 's natural alpha wave oscillations . Researchers in North Carolina claim that zapping the brain with a mild electric current can boost creativity by nearly eight per cent . As well as creativity , these oscillations - or the lack of them - are linked with depression . Flavio Frohlich , an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina said : 'If we could enhance these brain activity patterns , then we could potentially help many people . ' Alpha oscillations occur within the frequency range of eight and 12 Hertz 9 ( or cycles per second ) . They were discovered in 1929 by Hans Berger , who invented EEG . Alpha oscillations happen most prominently when we close our eyes and shut out sensory stimuli – things we see , feel , taste , smell , and hear . When alpha oscillations are active , your sensory inputs might be offline as you daydream , meditate , or conjure ideas . When you come fully online , alpha oscillations disappear . Other oscillations at higher frequencies , such as gamma oscillations , take over . An EEG of a naturally occurring alpha oscillation in a human brain . Enhancing these electric oscillations may help treat people with depression , scientists claim . They tested their theory using a 10-Hertz current run through electrodes attached to the scalp on 20 volunteers to stimulate the brain 's natural alpha wave oscillations . They then recorded the results using EEG . Knowing this , other researchers began associating alpha oscillations with creativity . Professor Frohlich set out to find evidence . His idea was simple . If he could enhance the rhythmic patterns of alpha oscillations to improve creativity . For the study , Professor Frohlich 's team enrolled 20 healthy adults . Researchers placed electrodes on each side of each participant 's frontal scalp and a third electrode toward the back of the scalp . An experimental technique used to boost brain performance with electrical pulses can actually cause people to perform less well in some tasks , scientists have found . The technology , known as transcranial direct current stimulation , is already being marketed in commercial products as a way of helping computer game players and athletes improve their focus . However , new research from the University of Oxford suggests that the benefits of this technique , which stimulates activity in the brain with an electrical current , may be limited by personality as it appears to only be helpful to people who are stressed about performing a task . They found that while electrical stimulation helped those who lacked confidence or were anxious about performing a series of sums , it caused those who did not fear mathematics to decline . A follow up study that examined how volunteers fared at spotting which way an arrow was pointing on a screen when confronted with distracting information showed that all those who received stimulation performed more poorly . This way , the 10-Hertz alpha oscillation stimulation for each side of the cortex would be in unison . Each participant underwent two sessions . During one session , researchers used a 10-Hertz sham stimulation for just five minutes . Participants felt a tingle at the start of the five minutes . For the next 25 minutes , each participant continued to take the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking . In one task , each participant was shown a small fraction of an illustration – sometimes just a bent line on a piece of paper . Participants used the line to complete an illustration , and they wrote a title when they finished . In the other session each participant underwent the same protocol , except they were stimulated at 10 Hertz for the entire 30 minutes while doing the Torrance test . The tingling sensation only occurred at the start of the stimulation , ensuring that each participant did not know which session was the control session . Then Frohlich 's team compared each participant 's creativity score , they found participants scored an average 7.4 percentage points higher than they did during the control sessions . 'That 's a pretty big difference when it comes to creativity , ' Frohlich said . 'Several participants showed incredible improvements in creativity . It was a very clear effect . ' 'We do n't know if there are long-term safety concerns , ' he said . 'We did a well-controlled , one-time study and found an acute effect . ' 'Also , I have strong ethical concerns about cognitive enhancement for healthy adults , just as sports fans might have concerns about athletic enhancement through the use of performance-enhancing drugs . '
Researchers ran a 10-Hertz current through brains of 20 volunteers . They wanted to stimulate alpha wave oscillations linked to creativity . These oscillations are thought to be impaired in people with depression . Team are now hoping to use the technique to treat depressed people .