Zapping brain with precise electrical current boosts memory in older adults, BU study finds

Shooting electrical current into the brain for just 25 minutes reversed the decline in working memory that comes with aging, Boston University scientists reported Monday. Although the researchers tested the effects on people for only 50 minutes, the finding offers hope for boosting a mental function that is so crucial for reasoning, everyday problem-solving, and planning that it has been called the foundation of intelligence. By stimulating the brain in precise regions with alternating current, “we can bring back the superior working memory function you had when you were much younger,” psychology researcher Robert Reinhart of BU told reporters. “The negative age-related changes [in working memory] are not unchangeable.” For alternating current, delivered by electrodes embedded in a skull cap, to become a treatment for working memory deficits, however, it would have to overcome a long list of hurdles, starting with proof that it’s safe. But whether or not the findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, result in any practical applications, they provide some of the strongest evidence yet of why older adults aren’t as good at remembering a just-heard phone number or an address in a just-seen text: Brain circuits become functionally disconnected and fall out of synchrony. “This is a well-designed, rigorous study,” said neurophysiologist Michael Nitsche of Germany’s University of Göttingen, who reviewed the paper for the journal. “It adds important information about the causal relevance of alterations of [brainwaves] for age-dependent cognitive decline, and it shows that these alterations are reversible.” Working memory is the sketchpad of the mind, where information is weighed, considered, manipulated, and fed into cognitive tasks, from following a conversation to doing mental math. For their experiments, the BU scientists tested the working memories of 42 younger adults (aged 20 to 29) and 42 older ones (60 to 76). People saw an […]

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