
New study shows that perfectly-timed electric pulses could increase brain power.
A neurological study from the University of Pennsylvania proved that brain power could potentially be boosted up to 15 percent by using perfectly-times electrical pulses. The trial involved epilepsy patients from multiple US clinics.
Electrical Pulses Can Improve Memory
Professor Youssef Ezzyat of the University of Pennsylvania, the senior researcher of the new brain improvement project, declared that the recent experiment proves that, sometimes, the human brain needs just a little nudge in order to perform at peak capacity.
Ezzyat explained that the experiment is based on common brain electrode epilepsy treatment and that the results are visible in a matter of seconds. For the purpose of this study, Ezzyat and his team of medical researchers invited 20 patients to partake in a month-long medical study.
As the senior scientist pointed out, all patients involved in the study were neurosurgical cases, receiving regular treatment for epilepsy. During the experiment, all participants were given a list of words and were asked to memorize as many as they can and to reproduce them.
As the patients were memorizing the words from the list, a series of sensors monitored their brain signals. Ezzyat said that this experiment focused on stimulating the left side of the brain, also called the left temporal cortex.
Now, each time the patient was on the verge of forgetting a word they’ve memorized, the team would send a series of electrical pulses to their brains. A couple of attempts later, the computer, having memorized what their brain electrical patterns looked like when they were just about to forget a word, would automatically send electrical pulses.
Conclusion
The results revealed that the subject’s learning capacity increased by 15 percent on the average. Ezzyat’s study was recently published in the Journal of Nature Communications.
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