Mild electric shocks to the brain may protect older people from memory loss

Research shows that giving a mild electric shock to the brain can protect older people from short-term and long-term memory loss.

It’s not clear whether the approach can help people with dementia. Robert Reinhart, an assistant professor at Boston University and co-author of the study, said that memory loss is a common symptom of cognitive decline that we experience as we age, and that amnesia affects decision-making, planning and learning. can do, for example.

Reinhart and his team found that targeting specific areas of the brain with a noninvasive weak electrical current in repeated 20-minute sessions over four days helped prevent memory decline for at least a month. can.

“Depending on the spatial location and frequency of electrical stimulation, we can improve either short-term memory or long-term memory separately,” Reinhart said.

However, others said the study was limited to healthy participants and word recall, meaning the results would not necessarily apply to people with dementia.

The team recruited 150 people aged 65 to 88. Over four consecutive days, the researchers asked participants to memorize five lists of 20 words while given electrical signals to parts of the brain involved in short-term and long-term memory.

The researchers tracked the participants’ performance over four days as well as a month after the experiment. “We observed that memory improvement accumulates over time with each passing day, so that memory enhancement in short-term memory and long-term memory can be observed at a one-month time point,” Reinhart said.

The participants who were most forgetful at the start of the study showed the greatest benefit one month after treatment, the researchers said.

“Older people with poor general cognitive function at baseline — getting into the experiment — showed the greatest improvement during the intervention and one-month time point,” Reinhart said. This means that electrical brain stimulation could help patients with more severe memory loss, such as those with Alzheimer’s disease, he said.

Professor Masood Hussain, from the University of Oxford, said, “The effect on memory was of the order of remembering three to four more words out of a list of 20, but this improvement in memory ability was detected after one month of stimulation, which is quite remarkable. ” , who was not involved in the study.

Dr Susan Koolhaas, Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, who was not involved in the study, said: “This is a small early-stage study that has shown some memory benefits for older people who have not been specifically involved in noninvasive brain stimulation. Received equipment and very specific procedures.

“It is important to note that these participants did not have memory problems, and this research tells us nothing about their ability to slow cognitive decline caused by diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Many people experience changes in their memory skills. do as they get older and this is not necessarily a sign of dementia. Anyone concerned about their memory should speak to their GP.”

Professor Tara Spears-Jones from the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the study, said: “This is promising work, and it shows how surprisingly flexible and adaptable the brain is. were given specific word-list tasks, which may not be so representative of everyday activities.”

Spiers-Jones said regular exercise and lifelong learning are effective ways to slow the decline in memory. “Staying fit and healthy is very protective against cognitive decline and dementia. Taking good care of your body and mind is like taking good care of your mind.”