| Title | Transcranial Brain Stimulation Could Improve Working Memory | |
| Date | Wednesday April 10 2019, @02:09PM | |
| Author | Fnord666 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the zapping-the-elderly-for-science dept. | ||
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%
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Scientists Connect 3 Actual Human Brains (Then Make Them Play Tetris)
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2
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printed from SoylentNews, Transcranial Brain Stimulation Could Improve Working Memory on 2024-05-15 21:05:29