Study: Little electrical shocks to the brain improve memory?

According to US researchers, bringing a small  shock in  a person’s brain just before they discovered  a new task  seemed  to strengthen memory in a handful of patients with epilepsy, a tantalizing result that could have implications for Alzheimer’s disease.

Pacemaker devices which are also known to be  deep brain stimulators created by Medtronicand St. Jude Medical are already utilized  to relax  muscle tremors in patients with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, and are being tested for a host of other conditions such as treatment-resistant depression.

The machines are implanted under the skin in the chest with wires all the way to the neck connected to tiny electrodes implanted deep in the brain, which generate  electrical impulses.

The new  study was done at the University of California at Los Angeles to  seven epileptic patients  who had electrodes implanted deep in their brains to help identify the source of their seizures. The team  grabbed this opportunity to leaarn  how stimulating the brain affects memory.

They focused on an area of the brain called the entorhinal cortex, which helps form and store memories.