Brain cap appears to boost memory for at least 1 month
Can I improve my memory? A cap that delivers electric zaps to the brain appeared to boost memory. Scientists think the device could one day be used at home.
A cap embedded with electrodes that deliver small electric zaps to the brain appeared to boost memory in a group of older adults for at least one month, according to a new study.
The researchers say the technology, the results of which were published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, could one day be used as an at-home intervention for people at risk of dementia to improve memory, when diet and other lifestyle changes alone aren’t enough.
Though both the study's authors and outside experts say that more work is needed before people could go out and use such a device, there's an air of excitement around the results.
The findings are “quite remarkable,” said Dr. Gregory Worrell, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved in the research.
“Memory dysfunction is such a common comorbidity of neurologic and psychiatric disease, so these kinds of results could have really wide-ranging applications,” he said.
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