Mental decline is common; it is one of the most feared consequences of aging.
Now researchers from Northwestern University have found that electromagnetic pulses, when applied precisely to the brain’s memory center, can improve the memory of older adults with age-related memory loss.
After just five short sessions, their memory improved to the memory levels of young adults
Researchers used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a very promising brain stimulation technique to target the hippocampus (the portion of brain that weakens as people grow older).
Lead investigator Dr Joel Voss explained, “It’s the part of the brain that links two unrelated things together into a memory, like the place you left your keys or your new neighbor’s name,” “Older adults often complain about having trouble with this.”
TMS is non-invasive and very effective
Other methods used in these therapies usually involve invasive surgical implantation of electrodes. Unlike those methods, TMS is painless and it simply involves firing of magnetic pulses into specific regions of the brain.
Joel Voss, said, “Older people’s memory got better up to the level that we could no longer tell them apart from younger people,” “They got substantially better.”
