Blindfolded, Prakyath shuffled his hands into a bag to extract a red ball, drawing a round of applause from a media gathering. The six-year-old had just debunked ‘mid-brain activation’, a learning technique that has caught the fancy of parents striving to bring the genius out of their children.
The demonstration was organised here on Monday by Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV) and Manava Vikasa Vedika that swear allegiance to rational thought and science. The organisers said that some parents in the city spend as much as Rs. 25,000 to have their mid-brains of their children activated to improve cognition and sensory functions of their children. One associated claim made by proponents of mid-brain activation, the organisers stated, was children can see and read with eyes closed.
“When we tested children who were trained in mid-brain activation, we learnt they and the parents were simply being fooled. Worst, children were being convinced that they had developed a special ability and made to lie,” said T.V. Rao of JVV.
Trick exposed
In one video, two children who underwent training were made to read with a blindfold. The children ‘smelt’ the text to read it out.
When the rationalists completely covered the text, the children failed to read, making their parents realise they had been peeping all along through the blindfold to be able to read the text.
A neurosurgeon, Dr. Y. Thirumal warned that the mid-brain is actually a conduit channel for nerve fibres and acts as a connection between the brain and the spinal cord. It is not associated with intelligence, he said. Upon discrediting the claims, activists advised parents not to hold children responsible.
“Children are convinced of their abilities and if parents take it out on their children, it would hurt their confidence. Instead, we request them to come forth and register criminal complaints against organisations that claim to offer these training programmes,” said N. Vikram, a magician. He added that nearly 30 institutions in the city are offering such programmes and have defrauded people of huge sums. The organisations announced a Rs. 5 lakh challenge to proponents of mid-brain activation to prove its efficacy.
Parents cautioned against training programmes that claim to improve cognition and sensory functions of their children
