#Learningdisabilities

A recent research breakthrough suggests that stimulating the brain with weak electric currents could significantly enhance a person’s ability to learn mathematics, offering hope for new approaches to supporting students and adults struggling with numeracy. According to a report by The Hindu, the study revealed that applying gentle electrical stimulation to specific areas of the brain led to noticeable improvements in math learning for participants.

This development matters to Thai readers, especially as mathematics education remains a challenge for many students nationwide. Despite ongoing curriculum reforms and teacher training efforts, Thailand consistently scores below global averages in international math assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (World Bank). Finding innovative, evidence-based methods to improve mathematics performance is a high priority across the Thai education system, making research into brain stimulation particularly relevant.

Millions of children in the United States are diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and the vast majority are prescribed stimulant medications such as Ritalin and Adderall. However, a new wave of research reported by NPR and detailed in The New York Times Magazine raises pressing questions about the effectiveness and long-term consequences of these treatments, as well as the very nature of ADHD itself (NPR, 2025).

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed last year that more than 11% of American children had received an ADHD diagnosis—a record high, and a dramatic increase from the early 1990s figure of just 2 million. In 14-year-old boys, the rate soars to 21%. These statistics portray a nation deeply invested in identifying—and medicating—children with ADHD. But why are diagnoses rising, and are treatments truly serving those diagnosed?

A groundbreaking study from MIT is shaking up decades of neuroscience wisdom, revealing the brain’s “object recognition” pathway may also play a significant role in understanding spatial information—an insight that could revolutionize our approach to learning, artificial intelligence, and brain health around the world, including here in Thailand.

For years, scientists have believed the ventral visual stream, a key pathway in the human brain, is dedicated to recognizing objects—like a Starbucks cup on a Bangkok Skytrain or a rambutan vendor at the Chatuchak Market. This idea shaped not just neuroscience textbooks, but also inspired computer vision systems now used in everything from smartphones to smart cars. Yet, new research led by MIT graduate student Yudi Xie suggests the story is far more nuanced. Their findings, presented at the prestigious International Conference on Learning Representations, show that when deep learning models are trained not only to identify objects, but also to understand spatial features like location, rotation, and size, these models mirror neural activity in the ventral stream just as accurately as traditional object recognition models. In other words, the ventral stream might be wired for much more than recognizing faces or products—it could be a multifaceted toolkit for seeing and interacting with the world.