Stimulate the brain to regain memory

Will we soon be able to recover the lost memory? American researchers from Northwestern Medicine have managed to improve the memory of complex and realistic events by applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the brain network responsible for memory. In work published February 4 in the journal Current Biology, scientists show that it is possible to measure and manipulate realistic types of memory. “In everyday life, we have to remember complex events that involve many things, such as different places, people and objects.continued lead author Melissa Hebscher. We were able to show that the memory of complex and realistic events can be improved in a safe and non-invasive way through brain stimulation..”

Memory, a mental journey through time

The scientists conducted their study on healthy young adults in a controlled laboratory. They used TMS with the aim of altering brain activity and memory for realistic events. To test their effectiveness, they asked participants to perform a memory task while having their brains scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Instead of showing participants pictures or lists of words, volunteers watched videos of daily activities such as someone folding laundry or taking out the trash. “Our study used video clips that more closely replicate how memory works in everyday life”, justified Melissa Hebscher. After watching the video, participants answered specific questions about the content of these videos.

The results revealed that brain stimulation helps restore a better quality of memories in the brain. After stimulation, a person’s brain activity while watching a video more closely resembled their brain activity when recalling that same video. “This is why remembering can sometimes feel like mental time travel.said the researcher. Our results show that stimulation enhances this mental time travel in the brain and improves memory accuracy. These findings have implications for the development of safe and effective ways to improve real-world memory..” This method could also be used to improve memory in people with memory problems due to brain damage or neurological disorders.

Next-generation brain imaging technology

The study authors used a brain imaging technique called multi-voxel pattern analysis to compare patterns of brain activity when subjects watched a video and to measure brain activity when subjects remembered this same video. The scientists measured the effect of the stimulation by comparing memory and brain activity after stimulation of the memory network to measurements after stimulation of another brain region not belonging to the memory network. “Follow-up studies will gather more reliable measures of the brain network responsible for memory in healthy subjects as well as in patients with memory impairment.continues Melissa Hebscher. Having a more reliable measure of this network will help us more easily identify reintegration in the brain and may help improve the effectiveness of stimulation to improve memory..”