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Stimulating a precise location of the brain's memory center with electromagnetic impulses enhances the memory of elderly people with age-related memory loss in young adults, according to a Northwestern Medicine study.
Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (SMT) to target the hippocampus, the region of the brain that atrophies with age and is responsible for the decline of memory, the study conducted on 16 people aged 64 to 80 with normal memory problems related to memory capacity in the elderly using this type of brain stimulation.
The researchers located the hippocampus, which is smaller in the elderly, individually for each participant with fMRI. An fMRI (functional MRI) measures the degree of activity of a part of the brain at a given time.
They then located an area of the parietal lobe that communicates with the hippocampus for stimulation. This place was behind and slightly above the left ear of a person, but everyone had a slightly different place.
"We stimulated the synchronization of brain activity with the hippocampus, suggesting that these regions are talking to each other," said the first author, Aneesha Nilakantan, a neuroscience student at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
Stimulating a precise location of the brain's memory center with electromagnetic impulses improves the memory of older people with age-related memory loss in young adults, says a new study. / VCG Photo
Stimulating a precise location of the brain's memory center with electromagnetic impulses improves the memory of older people with age-related memory loss in young adults, says a new study. / VCG Photo
Initially, young and old adults were given memory tasks in which they learned arbitrary relationships between related objects. The youngest adults have a correct score of about 55% and the older ones less than 40%.
The investigator then applied high frequency repetitive magnetic stimulation to the spot for five consecutive days for 20 minutes per day.
Twenty-four hours after the final stimulation, the subjects were re-tested in memory to learn new arbitrary relationships between related objects. After brain stimulation, older adults were at the level of young adults with memory tasks.
"The memory of the elderly has improved to the point that we can no longer differentiate them from younger people," said principal investigator Joel Voss, badociate professor at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. . "They have improved significantly."
The study also used a false placebo stimulation condition, which did not improve memory.
In a next step, researchers will test this approach on participants with mild cognitive impairment, the early stage of Alzheimer's disease. They will stimulate the brain for longer periods.
The study was published Wednesday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
(Coverage via VCG)
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