The study team analyzed past data from 40 college students who were allowed to memorize lists of words. As they memorized the words, half among them received slow rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the other half received rTMS over a control region of the brain.
Another experiment with 24 college students was also done as they performed a similar memory task under both rTMS conditions.
Magnetic Stimulation and Memory
It was seen that inhibitory low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulationor rTMS could improve memory performance when delivered over a specific brain region – the left prefrontal cortex.
EEG data showed that this occurs by reducing the power of low-frequency brain waves – beta-waves in the parietal region (attention and perception) of the brain, as memories form.
“Our electrophysiological results suggest that frontal stimulation affects a wider network and improves memory formation by inhibiting parietal areas. These are complex but interesting effects that require further experiments to better understand their neural basis”, says van der Plas, University of Glasgow.
The study further anticipates exploring their results for better treatments that may revolutionize the memory grounds.
Source: Medindia
