despite its critical role, working memory is a fragile cognitive resource that declines with age, Reinhart says. Previous studies had suggested that reduced working-memory performance in the elderly is linked to uncoupled activity in different brain areas. So Reinhart and his team set out to test whether recoupling brain waves in older adults could boost the brain's ability to temporarily store information.
To do so, the researchers used jolts of weak electrical current to synchronize waves in the prefrontal and temporal cortex—two brain areas critical for cognition—and applied the current to the scalps of 42 healthy people in their 60s and 70s who showed no signs of decline in mental ability. Before their brains were zapped, participants looked at a series of images: an everyday object, followed briefly by a blank screen, and then either an identical or a modified version of the same object. The goal was to spot whether the two images were different.
Then the participants took the test again, while their brains were stimulated with a current. After about 25 minutes of applying electricity, participants were on average more accurate at identifying changes in the images than they were before the stimulation. Following stimulation, their performance in the test was indistinguishable from that of a group of 42 people in their 20s.
tl;dr;: electrocute grandpa, then ask him where he hid his will.
Scientists Test Whether Brain Stimulation Could Help Sharpen Aging Memory
One leading hypothesis contends that working memory works by far-flung brain areas firing synchronously. When two areas are on the same brain wavelength, communication is tight, and working memory functions seamlessly.
But as we age, these brain areas start falling out of step, and these once tightly linked brain areas are no longer on the same page. A study published Monday in [DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0371-x] [DX] Nature Neuroscience demonstrates a link between these mismatched brain rhythms and declines in working memory in older adults and shows that a precise form of electrical stimulation applied to the scalp can coax these brain areas back into sync.
Applied to the brain via a skullcap studded with electrodes, an experimental form of transcranial brain stimulation delivers alternating current to a small group of neurons to nudge them to a specific wavelength. Imagine two giant pendulums swinging at different rates. The brain stimulation nudges each pendulum with a pair of electrical hands pushing at the same frequency, causing them to sync up and swing synchronously.
Also at The Guardian.
Related: Memory Enhancement Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation Could Speed Learning by 40%
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Could Reduce People's Intentions to Commit Violence
Scientists Connect 3 Actual Human Brains (Then Make Them Play Tetris)
(Score: 4, Touché) by black6host on Wednesday April 10 2019, @02:18PM (1 child)
You vill remember the images or ve vill shock you again!
(Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday April 11 2019, @01:44AM
YOU wa SHOCK! ai de sora ga ochite kuru!
YOU wa SHOCK! ore no mune ni ochite kuru!
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday April 10 2019, @02:36PM (1 child)
Read this a while back about using it to treat Alzheimer's and dementia.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5992378/ [nih.gov]
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @10:10PM
I have worked on a similar box purported to treat depression.
What it was really used for, though, was a conduit to route insurance monies to investment groups.
About 90% of its code had to do with accounting for its use. The actual stimulation signal was provided by a gated counter output; highly patented. But remember, proving something actually does something is not required to get a patent.
I consider it the modern day equivalent of the witch doctor, aka faith healer.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Wednesday April 10 2019, @02:48PM (3 children)
I'm curious what affect this might have when one has been drinking....
We could have a massive sample on a Friday night ;-)
(Score: 3, Funny) by RS3 on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:46PM (2 children)
Well, alcohol is flammable, and electricity can be an igniter, so maybe stand back a bit while observing this experiment, wear goggles, Nomex suit, gloves...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @07:43PM (1 child)
So maybe keep them away from high school baseball fields? [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday April 10 2019, @08:48PM
That all depends on your goal.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday April 10 2019, @03:31PM (2 children)
Nature Neuroscience is pretty good about not taking papers that fail to adequately control. Most of the replication crisis lives in smaller psych journals.
They did several clever things to prove specifically their hypothesis.
1. A sham stimulation group that showed no improvement
2. Younger sham group to establish a "target" performance level in their older experimental group, because experimental group performance different from that target would also disprove their hypothesis that their TCS specifically reversed age-related effects.
3. They ran a second experiment where they did similar stimulation but targeted at a different region of the brain, finding no improvement.
4. They ran a stimulation to desynchonize younger participants, and found their performance fell to the older adult levels.
It's good experimental science.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 10 2019, @05:33PM (1 child)
I see what you're doing with the science inb4's and I like it.
(at least, I think that's been you)
(Score: 3, Funny) by ikanreed on Wednesday April 10 2019, @05:48PM
Everytime someone reads the methodology section, an angel gets its wings.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:48PM (2 children)
I am reminded of some Future Poll ideas [soylentnews.org] which I have suggested, along the lines of . . . which glows brightest.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:56PM (1 child)
Do I attach the jumper cables to the ears?
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Wednesday April 10 2019, @07:30PM
A bit lower, . . .
http://pontus.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/electric_belt.jpg [mentalfloss.com]
1902 technology! Oh, you said "transcranial", not "transscrotal"? My mistake.
Could we have more aristarchus submissions? Or more about Homeopathy? I love the smell of science in the morning.