Humm’s headset turns your brain into overdrive for better gaming

Above: Humm’s headband stimulates your brain. Humm has a headset that can make you smarter, at least temporarily, by stimulating the part of your brain that is responsible for learning and memory. This “ biohacking ” can help you play games or esports better, or otherwise simply improve your cognitive performance. Berkeley, California-based Humm has created a headband that uses electrical stimulation to deliver electrical signals to your frontal cortex. No, it’s not a frontal lobotomy. The team at Humm thinks of it more as biohacking, or helping you get a cognitive edge through technology. This is just the sort of thing that I could use to become an esports athlete. You can wear the Humm Edge headset and press a button, which activates the electrical brain stimulation. Humm CEO Iain McIntyre said in an interview with GamesBeat that you can directly improve cognitive performance simply by wearing the device while you work, with no additional meditation or special diets. “We target the part of the brain with electricity to help concentration and learn new skills,” McIntyre said. “We use a targeted current to make a small boost to certain brainwaves.” The technology is based on a new form of non-invasive brain stimulation, a field with more than 20 years of clinical research and a strong track record for safety. Previously it has been used to treat such conditions as depression and insomnia, but recently it has been found to provide cognitive benefits too. Humm’s device creates small electrical signals that amplify brainwave patterns, and it is similar to technology used by the U.S. military, Olympic athletes and leading labs such as the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and Harvard. Users wear the headband-like headset for 15 minutes prior to a learning or work session and immediately get […]

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