Bit of zap and tickle can aid short-term memory

A device akin to a hearing aid could be used to boost the memory and help millions of people.

A device akin to a hearing aid could be used to boost the memor­y and help millions of people to recall the location of their car keys or whether they have turned off the cooker.

Studies suggest short-term memory can be improved by applying tiny electrical ­“tickles” to the left frontal cortex of the brain. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found that a man who was shown a ­series of 12 words was able to ­remember only three of them, but with the aid of some electric­al tickling, he reeled off the full sequence.

Michal Kucewicz, a neuro­scientist at the clinic, said the study was the first to display such a “dramatic” change. It was a blind test and the patient had no way of telling if his brain was being tickled, he said.

“He doesn’t feel anything,” Dr Kucewicz said. “The only thing he could report was that he found it easier to picture these words in his mind. It is almost like we are enhancing his mental faculties responsible for remembering or picturing these words.

“It raises difficult bioethical questions over who should be benefiting from this or if it should be used by everyone.”

The patients in the tests were being treated for epilepsy. The tiny “zaps” were delivered through sensors implanted to map the brain before treatment.

Robert Hampson, of Wake Forest School of Medicine, in North Carolina, has carried out a similar study. “There are groups that are working on miniaturising the electronics,” he said,

The Times