Long-lasting, dissociable improvements in working memory and long-term memory in older adults

Here’s Dr Rhonda Patrick’s summary from the Nature paper:

“The study involved 150 healthy older adults, aged 65 years and older. The researchers applied transcranial alternating current stimulation to the participants’ brains at varying frequencies once a day for four days. As a placebo treatment, participants received a much shorter duration of treatment. Participants took memory tests before and after their respective treatments.

Participants that received the transcranial alternating current stimulation showed improvements in both working and long-term memory as early as two days after initiating treatment. These improvements were still present at follow-up testing one month later. Participants with poorer cognitive function at the beginning of the treatment showed greater, longer-lasting memory improvements.

These findings suggest that transcranial alternating current stimulation improves memory in older adults and may be suitable as a non-invasive therapy for memory loss. “

We are using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at The PTSD Institute.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-022-01132-3#Sec11