By Sara Reardon, Nature, January 10, 2016
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A strategy designed to improve memory by delivering brain stimulation through implanted electrodes is undergoing trials in humans. The US military, which is funding the research, hopes that the approach might help many of the thousands of soldiers who have developed deficits to their long-term memory as a result of head trauma. At the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, Illinois, on 17–21 October, two teams funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency presented evidence that such implanted devices can improve a person’s ability to retain memories.
By mimicking the electrical patterns that create and store memories, the researchers found that gaps caused by brain injury can be bridged. The findings raise hopes that a ‘neuroprosthetic’ that automatically enhances flagging memory could aid not only brain-injured soldiers, but also people who have had strokes — or even those who have lost some power of recall through normal ageing.
