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posted by janrinok on Friday February 09 2018, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the I've-forgotten-the-dept dept.

An experimental and invasive brain implant tested in people with epilepsy has been found to boost memory:

Scientists have developed a brain implant that noticeably boosted memory in its first serious test run, perhaps offering a promising new strategy to treat dementia, traumatic brain injuries and other conditions that damage memory.

The device works like a pacemaker, sending electrical pulses to aid the brain when it is struggling to store new information, but remaining quiet when it senses that the brain is functioning well.

In the test, reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02753-0] [DX], the device improved word recall by 15 percent — roughly the amount that Alzheimer's disease steals over two and half years.

There's also an AI/machine learning angle.


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 09 2018, @03:29PM (1 child)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday February 09 2018, @03:29PM (#635524)

    There's a problem with severe cognitive decline - when it's really severe, the victim is unaware how bad it is, this is when you hope that your friends and family can give you good advice.

    As for "overclocking the brain" - the mechanism of action of a lot of neurostimulation is simply to up-regulate the system based on the additional activity. Some people can get similar changes by simply getting out of bed, going outside and experiencing the world. Personally, I like driving the convertible to/from work with the top down, which (in good weather) can sometimes get enough seratonin going to elicit jaw-locked tooth grinding, similar to what Prozac patients describe.

    The problem with any of this is: once you establish a new baseline that's your new normal. In cases where the old normal was non-functional and the new normal is functional, that's infinite improvement, but in the more common case of a little up-regulation, it can be hard to tell the difference after you've been living in the new state for a while - though if you withdraw the up-regulating influence you usually do notice the regression/decline.

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  • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Friday February 09 2018, @05:48PM

    by unauthorized (3776) on Friday February 09 2018, @05:48PM (#635606)

    There's a problem with severe cognitive decline - when it's really severe, the victim is unaware how bad it is, this is when you hope that your friends and family can give you good advice.

    Certainly, but unless it's the consequence of injury, such decline rarely happens overnight, giving the afflicted a chance to make up their minds while they still have them. And if this procedure establishes itself, people can just make contingency plans for what to happen with them, should they abruptly become incapable of making the decision.