Technique 'boosts ability to learn'

Memory can be boosted by using a magnetic field to stimulate the brain, specifically the hippocampus.

The effect lasts at least 24 hours after the stimulation is given, improving the ability of volunteers to remember words linked to photos of faces.

Scientists believe the discovery could lead to new treatments for loss of memory function caused by ageing, strokes, head injuries and early Alzheimer’s disease.

A total of 16 volunteers aged 21 to 40 took part in the study, agreeing to undergo 20 minutes of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) every day for five days.

TMS directs a magnetic field at a specific area of the skull to induce weak electrical currents in the brain.

The scientists focused on the ability to learn and remember relationships between unrelated items – associative memory – like linking someone to a particular restaurant where you once both ate.

Prof Michal Lavidor, of the Department of Psychology at Bar-Ilan University and head of the Cognitive Neuroscience lab at the University’s Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Centre, together with her postdoctoral researcher Oded Meiron, applies transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the motor cortex of British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould

It involves a network of different brain regions working in concert with the hippocampus, which has been compared to an “orchestra conductor” directing brain activity.

Stimulating the hippocampus caused the orchestra “musicians” – the brain regions – to “play” more in time, improving performance.

At the start of a series of tests, participants were shown 20 photos of human faces while at the same time hearing words being read aloud.

After either undergoing TMS or receiving the placebo condition of no stimulation they were shown the photos again, and asked to recall which words were associated with them.

“They remembered more face-word pairings after the stimulation than before, which means their learning ability improved,” lead researcher Dr Joel Voss, from Northwestern University in Chicago, said.

“That didn’t happen for the placebo condition or in another control experiment with additional subjects.”

Scans confirmed that the stimulation caused the brain regions to become more synchronised with each other and the hippocampus.

Dr Voss added: “This opens up a whole new area for treatment studies where we will try to see if we can improve function in people who really need it.

“For a person with brain damage or a memory disorder, those networks are disrupted so even a small change could translate into gains in their function.”

The results are published in the latest edition of the journal Science.

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Technique 'boosts ability to learn'