New research has discovered that stimulating a specific area in the brain through non-invasive delivery of electrical current using magnetic pulses helps to improve memory. The process is known as
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.
The finding opens a new field of possibilities for treating memory impairments caused by conditions such as stroke, early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, cardiac arrest and the memory problems that occur due to aging.
Author Joel Voss, who is the professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said “We show for the first time that one can specifically change memory functions of the brain in adults especially old aged people without surgery or drugs, which have not proven effective.”
“This noninvasive stimulation improves the ability to learn new things. It has tremendous potential for treating memory disorders,” he also said.
The research was published 29th of August in Science.
The research also is the first to reveal that remembering events requires a collection of many brain regions to work together with a key memory structure known as the hippocampus — similar to a symphony orchestra. The electrical stimulation is similar to giving the brain regions a more talented conductor so they play in closer synchrony.
“It’s like we replaced their normal conductor with Muti,” Voss said, referring to Riccardo Muti, the music director of the renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
“The brain regions played together better after the stimulation,” Voss said.
The approach also has potential for dealing with mental disorders, for example schizophrenia in which these brain regions and the hippocampus are out of sync with one another, which affects memory and cognition. truly it is proven to be of great help to mental disorder.