Scientists Fixed People's Working Memory With Simple Electrical 'Zaps' to The Brain
https://www.sciencealert.com/brain-zap- ... der-people
See also: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/heal ... emory.htmlScientists have used a noninvasive form of electrostimulation to boost working memory in older people, effectively giving 70-year-olds the thinking abilities of their 20-year-old selves, at least temporarily.
Working memory is the cognitive resource responsible for decision-making at any given moment, letting us retain and access useful and relevant information, such as names, phone numbers, and where we've put things.
Unfortunately, this resource declines with age, and not just in those with significant cognitive deterioration, such as dementia, but in healthy people too experiencing the normal neurocognitive effects of ageing.
The good news is, this decline in working memory doesn't seem to be permanent.
"Age-related changes are not unchangeable," neuroscientist Robert Reinhart from Boston University told The Guardian.
"We can bring back the superior working memory function that you had when you were much younger."