Magnetic Stimulation Boosts Memory In Humans 74
sciencehabit writes: Our memories are annoyingly glitchy. Names, dates, birthdays, and the locations of car keys fall through the cracks, losses that accelerate at an alarming pace with age and in neurodegenerative diseases. Now, by applying electromagnetic pulses through the skull to carefully targeted brain regions, researchers have found a way to boost memory performance in healthy people. The new study (abstract) sheds light on the neural networks that support memories and may lead to therapies for people with memory deficits, researchers say.
Similar studies have been performed using electric current.
Re:Let's get this out of the way... (Score:4, Funny)
Oh great, NOW you tell me. I already stole all the magnets from the company kitchen and made a hat out of them. Oh well, if nothing else it'll be a great conversation starter.
Re:Let's get this out of the way... (Score:5, Funny)
It's the rate of change of magnetic flux that does the trick. You get changing flux from a changing electrical current, or from a moving magnet. So maybe if you loaded the magnets into a shotgun, then fired them through your brain, you'd notice an effect.
Re:Let's get this out of the way... (Score:4, Funny)
subwoofers ...causing headaches and annoying bystanders.
Subwoofers - causing annoying bystanders for over 50 years!
Don't you just love the playful ambiguities of the English language?
Re:pulsing (Score:5, Funny)
"How long" isn't the question, but "how fast". You should be accelerating it to a few kilometers/sec, then reversing its velocity when it's a few millimeters from your scalp. You should probably do this in a vacuum, to avoid confounding influences from shockwaves.
Re:"Carefully targetted" (Score:4, Funny)
Instead of a magnetic arm bracelet, it will be a magnetic halo for your head in order to give you god-like memory abilities. (only 5 easy payments of $19.99)
Bah! I've been doing this for years... people just couldn't see it because of the aluminum foil!