Mild electric shocks to the brain may protect older people from memory loss, shows research
Giving mild electric shocks to the brain could protect older people from short-term and long-term memory loss, research suggests.
Experts from Boston University recruited 150 people aged 65 to 88 for research, who were shocked for four consecutive days with a special electrical device in a certain part of the brain, as well as all participants were asked to recall five lists of 20 words each.
The experts monitored all the participants for four consecutive days during the study and also tested the performance of the participants after a month, which showed that giving the mild electric shocks improved their memory.
The experts gave all the volunteers electric shocks at different speeds and on different parts of their brains and tested them for long- and short-term memory.
According to experts, after receiving shocks from a special electrical device for four days at 20-minute intervals, their memory improved for a month and they remembered all the words given to them.
Experts said that such a procedure could improve the long-term and short-term memory of older people, but it is not clear whether the method would work for patients with dementia.
Professor Robert Reinhart, who was involved in the research, told that it is normal for memory to decline with age.
He further said that short and long-term memory can be saved by mild electric shock of a specific frequency in a special area of the elderly brain.
