While performing an experimental brain surgery on a 50 year-old man, scientists may have stumbled upon a mechanism that can reverse the loss of memory.
The surgery, originally intended to suppress the man’s appetite, used deep-brain simulation to send electronic impulses in the ‘appetite’ part of the brain. Instead, the patient had an intense experience of déjà vu.
Shocked scientists performed more tests with the impulses, and his learning ability and memory improved every time the impulses turned on to stimulate his brain.
“He reported the experience of being in a park with friends from when he was around 20 years old and, as the intensity of stimulation increased, the details became more vivid. He recognized his girlfriend [from the time] … The scene was in color. People were wearing identifiable clothes and were talking, but he could not decipher what they were saying,” the researchers write in Annals of Neurology.
While deep-brain stimulation is mainly used to treat individuals with Parkinson’s disease, researchers are now testing it on six Alzheimer’s patients. Three have already shown very promising results.
If scientists finally unlock how memory works through this new experiment, we could finally fine a solution for Alzheimer’s Disease, depression, as well as many other memory and mood related disorders.
