Electric Stimulation: Memory

Electric Stimulation Drastically Improves Memory of Older Folks

The performance of our working memory starts to go down right around the time we finish residency. The older we get, the more difficulty we have forming new memories and holding on to them for a long time. Because it’s still a mystery how the memory system of our brains works, a decline in its function has been mostly accepted as a given fact that’s difficult to do anything about.

Now researchers at Boston University have done something truly amazing, essentially giving 70 year-olds the memory abilities of 20 year-olds. The team applied external electric stimulation to the brains of older adults so as to couple and synchronize the brainwaves throughout different brain regions.

During memory tasks, brain activity associated with working memory lights up in the brain of a 20-year-old (left), but remains dormant in the brain of a person in their 70s (middle). After electrostimulation (right), the 70-year-old’s brain activity mimics the 20-year-old’s. Credit: Reinhart lab/Boston University

Following a 25 minute therapy session, the adults in their 70s, as well as those in their 20s that didn’t receive treatment, were subjected to a simple visual memory task. They were asked to memorize an image and to some time later identify whether a new image shown to them is the same as the original one. The old farts, who just a half hour earlier were pretty weak with the same memory task, were able to perform on the level with their younger counterparts.