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Scientists Reverse Memory Decline Using Electrical Pulses (theguardian.com)
A new study has found that electrical brain stimulation can temporarily reverse a decline in memory as a result of aging. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares the findings via a report from The Guardian: The study focused on a part of cognition called working memory, the brain system that holds information for short periods while we are making decisions or performing calculations. Working memory is crucial for a wide variety of tasks, such as recognizing faces, doing arithmetic and navigating a new environment. Working memory is known to steadily decline with age, even in the absence of any form of dementia. One factor in this decline is thought to be a disconnection between two brain networks, known as the prefrontal and temporal regions. In young people, the electrical brain activity in these two regions tends to be rhythmically synchronized, which scientists think allows information to be exchanged between the two brain areas. However, in older people the activity tends to be less tightly synchronized. This may be as result of deterioration of the long-range nerve connections that link up the different parts of the brain.
In the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, 42 people aged 20 -- 29 and 42 people aged 60 -- 76 were assessed in a working memory task. The older group were slower and less accurate on the tests. The scientists then subjected them all to 25 minutes of non-invasive brain stimulation. This aimed to synchronize the two target brain regions by passing gentle pulses of electricity through the scalp and into the brain. After the intervention, working memory in the older adults improved to match the younger group and the effect appeared to last for 50 minutes after the stimulation. Those who had scored worst to start with showed the largest improvements.
In the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, 42 people aged 20 -- 29 and 42 people aged 60 -- 76 were assessed in a working memory task. The older group were slower and less accurate on the tests. The scientists then subjected them all to 25 minutes of non-invasive brain stimulation. This aimed to synchronize the two target brain regions by passing gentle pulses of electricity through the scalp and into the brain. After the intervention, working memory in the older adults improved to match the younger group and the effect appeared to last for 50 minutes after the stimulation. Those who had scored worst to start with showed the largest improvements.
I had a really insightful comment to make about this article, but it slipped my mind. But trust me, it would have definitely been +5 Insightful. It has something to do with...nah, it's gone.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The shocks just woke them up.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Turns out the Matrixies got it backwards; we are not batteries, we *need* batteries to stay human!
I've got a bag of old 9-volts in the fridge, and a feeling I may have forgot something important.
Let's go!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not very surprising. That's exactly how DRAM works. You have to keep refreshing it with electricity, or else it forgets everything.
If ever a story deserved a duplicate post tomorrow morning, this would be the one.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
... and I can't shake the suspicion that there is a direct link here. I'm closing in on 50 and can observe the described decline in working memory first hand. It moves back and forth between being mildly annoying/funny and flat out scary. 45+ and your cognitive ability will decline in ways you yourself will start noticing. Prepare for that.
However I also observe that my thinking and perception of my environment has changed notably simply due to the fact that my eyes have gotten worse. And to the effect that the performance of each Eye has moved apart, with one eye being notably worse than another - *that* would explain the decline in synchronicity of brain hemispheres that appears to be the the direct cause in working memory decline as the article explains.
IMHO scientist should look into this particular link.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
No credit to the Lectroids and Dr. Emilio Lizardo?
"ECT" is what you mean. One of the side effects of ECT is memory loss, not memory enhancement, so this new procedure is somehow different.
A 20-25 minute session is pretty standard protocol for transcranial stimulation techniques which this may be (article is behind a paywall). The effects are usually temporary but a couple studies I know of have continued the protocol over the course of time (daily treatments not a continuous session!) and shown results still lasting a year later.
For most of these the results last longer and longer. So it may well be that this preliminary result shows a temporary benefit and subsequent results will show that regular sessions produce an increasing long duration of effect.
Have gnu, will travel.