“Electricity enhanced memory in the elderly”

“the Precise stimuleringar of the brain with the help of electricity improves working memory in the elderly. The memory becomes so good that it reminds of it in young adults. How long the effect is sitting in, however, is more unclear.”

“The so-called working memory is the memory which we use to manage information of a more temporary nature. When you write down a phone number you just heard, or solve a mathematical problem with the help of the knowledge you have and you are forced to keep the calculations in memory.”

“By the time works, however, this memory is getting worse and worse, unlike long-term memory, which can be completely intact far up in years. Thus, there are clear differences in working memory ability between younger and older adults, without the latter for the sake of suffering from either dementia or other cognitive disorders.”

“Now, researchers at Boston University in the united states show that this memory is going to improve so much in the elderly, this is reminiscent of younger people’s memory.”

“In the current research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, compared the scientists are 42 people in their 20s with as many in the 60 – and 70-year-olds. All were perfectly healthy. Despite the fact that they had a significantly poorer working memory than younger participants. They were both slower and had more errors on the tests carried out.”

“By measuring brain activity using EEG (elektroencefalografi) seemed clear that the younger participants had increased activity of certain specific electrical brain waves in the tinning and pannloberna, an activity that you already know is involved with managing working memory.”

“Then stimulated the researchers to two regions of the brain in the elderly with the help of weak electrical impulses, something that improved the working memory of them, so much so that it reminded it of the younger group. During the actual stimulation produced the significantly better, simply.”

“– thus, We can recover the more superior the function of the working memory that you had when you were much younger, says the researchers behind the study, professor Robert Reinhart, to BBC News.”

“the Effect lasted at least 50 minutes, which was as long as the researchers registered the. The researchers now want to do is to examine exactly how long the effect lasts and if the method can be useful for people who suffer from memory problems, for example, to all those who suffer from various dementias, such as Alzheimer’s disease.”

“Dorothy Bishop, professor of neuropsychology at the University of Oxford in the Uk, warns, however, of drawing too large, switches on the relatively small study.”

“– There is no evidence to suggest that the positive effects of this stimulation lasts longer than the actual experiment. Significantly more research must be performed before we can conclude that this method may have clinical use, ” she says to BBC News.”

“for a Long time, it was assumed that the memory consisted of a single system. Today, however, researchers agree that it can be divided into several subsystems. The main division is between short-term memory and long term memory.”

“Short-term memory or working memory, which only works for a few seconds, is activated when we, for example, to dial a phone number. The long-term memory is responsible for storage of information that may be needed at a later time.”

“Memory is localized in several parts of the brain. The Hippocampus is important for the type of long term memory known as episodic memory, that is to say, events that are related to each individual’s own experiences. The lobe and tinningloberna is on their side, important for working memory.”

“Source: Nationalencyklopedin”