BOOSTING brain waves can make people move in slow motion. The finding, one of the first to show that brain waves directly influence behaviour, could lead to new treatments for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.
Peter Brown at University College London used electrodes to generate a small electrical current in the brains of 14 healthy volunteers. The current increased the activity of normal beta waves, a kind of brain wave that is usually active during sustained muscle activities, such as holding a book. Beta activity usually drops before people begin a movement.
The participants then carried out a simple…
