Excerpt from the article in Scientific American:
Imagine if when you tried to learn something new, whether a person’s name or your 15th e-mail password, your brain received an electrical boost. This little jolt of electricity would shock neurons into action and make them pay attention, increasing your likelihood of being able to recall the information when you needed it.
This type of implantable neural device is no longer purely science fiction—or an episode of Black Mirror. Scientists have developed an apparatus that will electrically nudge the brain when it seems at risk of forgetting new information. The technology, which combines a technique called deep-brain stimulation (DBS) with real-time monitoring of neural activity, improved participants’ performance on a memory task by as much as 15 percent.
In DBS an electrical current is delivered to the brain via electrodes implanted at strategic locations. The device has helped to control tremors in patients with Parkinson’s disease and stop seizures in those with severe epilepsy. Scientists are now exploring whether DBS might even help treat Alzheimer's disease. But early studies of DBS’s effect on memory have been mixed—some tests led to a boost in performance whereas others resulted in impairment.
The different outcomes seem to depend largely on where and when the stimulation occurs. In the new study, published in Nature Communications, senior author Michael Kahana wanted to let the brain’s own activity guide the stimulation. “I've been studying the electrophysiology of memory processes for many years, and it seemed to me that [we should] use the electrical signals of the brain that predict good memory to help teach us how to stimulate the brain,” says Kahana, who is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Read the full article in Scientific American...
