Electric current to brain boosts memory

Chicago, Aug 29:

For the first time, scientists have shown that they can enhance memory without surgery or drugs, a breakthrough that could help treat memory disorders caused by stroke, Alzheimers and brain injury.

Stimulating a particular region in the brain via noninvasive delivery of electrical current using magnetic pulses, called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, improves memory, according to a new study by Northwestern University.

The discovery opens a new field of possibilities for treating memory impairments caused by conditions such as stroke, earlystage Alzheimers disease, traumatic brain injury, cardiac arrest and the memory problems that occur in healthy ageing.

We show for the first time that you can specifically change memory functions of the brain in adults without surgery or drugs, which have not proven effective, said senior author Joel Voss, assistant professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

This non-invasive stimulation improves the ability to learn new things. It has tremendous potential for treating memory disorders, said Voss.

The study also is the first to demonstrate that remembering events requires a collection of many brain regions to work in concert with a key memory structure called the hippocampus similar to a symphony orchestra.

The approach also has potential for treating mental disorders such as schizophrenia in which these brain regions and the hippocampus are out of sync with each other, affecting memory and cognition.

The study is the first to show TMS improves memory long after treatment. It shows that TMS can be used to improve memory for events at least 24 hours after the stimulation.

It isnt possible to directly stimulate the hippocampus with TMS because its too deep in the brain for the magnetic fields to penetrate, researchers said.

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Electric current to brain boosts memory