Electrical brain stimulation improved both immediate and long-term memory in elderly volunteers with the benefits lasting for more than a month, in experiments carried out at Boston University.
Robert Reinhart, the project leader, said the findings could form the basis for treatments that do not involve drugs or invasive neurotechnology, to boost the cognitive performance of people developing Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders characterised by failing memory.
The Boston researchers directed weak alternating currents to specific regions of the brain, using electrodes in skull caps worn by the participants. They worked with 150 people aged over 65, who received 20 minutes of stimulus a day over four days and heard lists of words that they were asked to recall.