SAN FRANCISCO (Dispatches)  --  New research by neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh and University of California San Francisco (UCSF) revealed that a simple, earbud-like device that imperceptibly stimulates the brain could significantly improve the wearer’s ability to learn the sounds of a new language.
Researchers used a non-invasive technique called transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), in which a small stimulator is placed in the outer ear and can activate the vagus nerve using unnoticeable electrical pulses to stimulate one of the nerve’s nearby branches.
"Showing that non-invasive peripheral nerve stimulation can make language learning easier potentially opens the door to improving cognitive performance across a wide range of domains,” said lead author Fernando Llanos, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Pitt’s Sound Brain Lab.