An individual learns things and then suddenly forgets them when he tries to recall or retrieve them. This happens most of the time with us because of the memory loss inside our brains. Memory refers to the process of the brain through which it acquires, stores, retains and retrieves information based on our experiences. Memory loss can stretch from minor annoying problems like forgetting the name of the person you have just met, to major diseases, like Alzheimer’s (loss of memory) and Amnesia (a problem when a person loses the ability to remember information which they usually recall many times to perform day-to-day activities) that affect the quality of life and the ability to function. A new medical study at Northwestern University improved memory of realistic and complex events by applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a drug-free procedure that uses a magnetic coil on the scalp which sends pulses to the brain network. In this study, participants were told to watch videos related to realistic activities and to check how memory works. The lead author Melissa Hebscher, a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine said “On a day-to-day basis we must remember complex events that involve many elements, such as different locations, people, and objects. she also said, “We were able to show that memory for complex, realistic events can be improved in a safe and non-invasive way using brain stimulation.”
The authors used a technique that is brain imaging, called multi-voxel pattern analysis to check how brain activity responded when the subject was watching the video and then remembering the same video. The author measured the effect of stimulation by comparing memory and brain activity. By following the stimulation, the participants were able to answer the questions correctly about the content of the videos after watching them. The study author of the University said, “Having a more reliable measurement of this network will help us more easily identify reinstatement in the brain and may help improve the effectiveness of stimulation for enhancing memory.”
