This is huge and valuable to our aging population. Therapeutic equipment will be on the market far sooner than suggested here. Simply knowing this is enough for setting up effective tools. We all want our short term memory to be fully activated when doing important tasks when makes for a huge demand that we may well integrate with our smart phones, justifying a superior headset.
That headset concept can be light and close enough to effect targeted stimulation and plausibly signaling as well. The ideal is to have it replace our fingers for input while operating out screens and augmenting our short term memory.
Of course, it would be even better to have all this safely embedded into the surface of our skulls, but i think we will wait a long time for that, though perhaps not. After all it would be useful to cover out entire skull with wide net of carbon fibers and the obvious nodes can be used for inserting hardware. This additionally reinforces the skull.
.
To Improve Memory, Tune It Like an Orchestra
A
noninvasive technique shows promise in improving the working memory of
older adults. But, the scientists note, “Do not try this at home!”
On
Monday, scientists reported that brief sessions of specialized brain
stimulation could reverse the decline in working memory, at least
temporarily, for people in their 60s and 70s.CreditGetty Images
Anyone
above a certain age who has drawn a blank on the name of a favorite
uncle, a friend’s phone number or the location of a house key
understands how fragile memory is. Its speed and accuracy begin to slip
in one’s 20s and keep slipping. This is particularly true for working
memory, the mental sketch pad that holds numbers, names and other facts
temporarily in mind, allowing decisions to be made throughout the day.
On
Monday, scientists reported that brief sessions of specialized brain
stimulation could reverse this steady decline in working memory, at
least temporarily. The stimulation targeted key regions in the brain and
synchronized neural circuits in those areas, effectively tuning them to
one another, as an orchestra conductor might tune the wind section to
the strings.
The findings, reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience,
provide the strongest support yet for a method called transcranial
alternating current stimulation, or tACS, as a potential therapy for
memory deficits, whether from age-related decline, brain injury or,
perhaps, creeping dementia.
In
recent years, neuroscientists have shown that memory calls on a widely
distributed network in the brain, and it coordinates those interactions
through slow-frequency, thrumming rhythms called theta waves,
akin to the pulsing songs shared among humpback whales. The tACS
technology is thought to enable clearer communication by tuning distant
circuits to one another.
The
tACS approach is appealing for several reasons, perhaps most of all
because it is noninvasive; unlike other forms of memory support, it
involves no implant, which requires brain surgery. The stimulation
passes through the skull with little sensation. Still, a widely
available therapy is likely years away, as the risks and benefits are
not fully understood, experts said.
“This
study suggests that age-related impairment in one particular form of
short-term memory largely reflects a failure of synchronization,” said
Michael Kahana, a brain scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who
was not involved in the research. If the technique can boost other forms
of memory, “it could be a game changer for the treatment of age-related
memory decline and possibly even dementia,” Dr. Kahana said.
In
the new study, Robert M.G. Reinhart and John A. Nguyen, neuroscientists
at Boston University, invited two groups of subjects, young adults and
people in their 60s and 70s, to the lab for baseline measures of their
neural firing rhythms. The scientists tailored the tACS program to
optimize rhythmic “coupling” between frontal and temporal cortex areas
in each individual’s brain. These brain regions specifically support
working memory.
After 25 minutes of
gentle stimulation, delivered by electrodes built into a skullcap, the
older subjects performed just as well on memory tests as young adults.
The
participants tested their own working memories repeatedly, completing
10 sessions on a computer-based program that mimicked the old Highlights
magazine game: stare at an image, then decide if subsequent images are
identical or have subtle differences.
They
performed under several conditions, including without stimulation; with
“sham” stimulation, as a placebo control, and with the targeted tACS.
The results were striking. Young people reliably outperformed their
elders in the no-stimulation and sham conditions. But with the aid of
the tACS, the older participants did just as well as their younger
counterparts. And their working memory remained sharp for as long as the
researchers continued testing it, for 50 minutes.
“We
show here that working-memory decline in people in their 60s and 70s is
due to brain circuits becoming uncoupled, or disconnected,” said Dr.
Reinhart, in a call with reporters. He added that the findings “show us
that negative, age-related changes in working memory are not unchangeable. We can bring back the superior function you had when you were much younger.”
The
tACS tuning prompted greater improvements in older people than in
younger ones, the study found, which suggests that the tool is more a
corrective than an enhancer of memory. In another experiment, Dr.
Reinhart and Dr. Nguyen found that, by using the tACS technology to
decouple key brain regions, they could temporarily muddle the working memory of young participants.
The new findings come at a time when increasing numbers of people are experimenting with brain stimulation at home,
placing electrodes on different areas of their skull, depending on how
they’re feeling. They share tips online about how best to use
stimulation when feeling depressed, or impulsive, or mentally foggy —
with mixed results. Experts said that the sort of stimulation used in
the new study is far from a do-it-yourself approach.
“Reinhart
and Nguyen use a very complex, sophisticated system here in a very
carefully controlled environment,” Bradley Voytek, a neuroscientist at
the University of California, San Diego, said in an email. “Do not try
this at home! This is a promising start, not a panacea for memory problems.”
No comments:
Post a Comment