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Neuromodulation Shown to Improve Memory in Older Adults
Neuromodulation can help improve memory in older adults, according to a new study published in Nature Neuroscience.
“Modulation of synchronous low-frequency, but not high-frequency, activity in parietal cortex preferentially improved working memory on day 3 and day 4 and 1 month after intervention, whereas modulation of synchronous high-frequency, but not low-frequency, activity in prefrontal cortex preferentially improved long-term memory on days 2–4 and 1 month after intervention,” noted lead author Shrey Grover, department of psychological and brain sciences, Boston University, and co-authors.
With numerous examples of emerging research that suggest the COVID-19 pandemic will increase the likelihood of impaired memory systems in older adults, researchers wanted to discover if there was a non-invasive, sustainable way to improve memory.
Researchers pulled data from 150 participants in the Boston area between the ages of 65 and 88 years old. Participants performed free-recall tasks with five lists of 20 high-frequency words, numbering 4 to 12 letters each. Participants also received 4 days of transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) with either sham, DLPFC gamma, or IPL theta, with participants randomly assigned to treatment groups.
The study showed significant boosts in both working and long-term memory, with participants showing improved memory up to 1 month post-treatment with neuromodulation. Improvement in the first 4 days of treatment was shown to be a predictor of the patients’ results at the 1-month mark. Researchers found that memory improvement depended more on the combination of anatomical location and rhythmic frequency rather than changes in frequency between multiple regions.
“Together, these findings suggest that memory function can be selectively and sustainably improved in older adults through modulation of functionally specific brain rhythms,” researchers concluded.
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