温和的电流**大脑的特定部分可以改善被损害的技能或者遭受中风和其他神经系统疾病的病人的数学能力，英国研究人员周四报道。

Applying a mild electrical current to a particular part of the brain could improve mathematical abilities in people who suffer impaired skills or in patients who have suffered strokes or other neurological problems, British researchers reported Thursday.

The weak current apparently allows neurons to fire more freely, stimulating the ability to learn, the researchers reported in the journal Current Biology. Reversing the flow of the current made it more difficult for neurons to fire, impairing learning ability.

The improvements in learning persisted for at least six months in the small study.

"It's perfectly conceivable that this type of stimulation can change people's capacity to learn," said Dr. Edwin M. Robertson, a neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who was not involved in the research. "The stimulation techniques they are using, people think, can alter the capacity of circuits in the brain to change, and those changes underlie our capacity to learn."

An estimated 6.5% of the population has a severe problem with even basic numerical understanding, a disabilitycalled developmental dyscalculia. As many as 20% have milder difficulties with math that present significant practical, educational and employment difficulties.

Neuropsychologist Roi Cohen Kadosh of the University of Oxford