New research from Penn and Temple University may make remembering people’s names a forgotten problem.
Scientists from both universities are using a technology which applies a weak electrical current to the head in order to stimulate the brain’s memory for proper names.
While the technique, known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), uses electricity, the process is not painful and there are “no shocks involved,” Temple researcher Ingrid Olson said.
She explained that a constant current is delivered to the scalp over the anterior temporal lobe, the area of the brain which processes proper name recognition. The current increases the probability that neurons will fire, facilitating the recollection of acquaintances’ names.
Olson’s study has only been tested on young adults, but an upcoming follow-up study with older adults will investigate whether the same technique works on older brains.
“Blanking on people’s names happens more and more as you age,” Olson said. Researchers also plan to study the technique on Alzheimer’s disease patients. She added that tDCS is a relatively new technology and is not widely used in the United States.
David Wolk, a researcher who uses the same technique at Penn, said the effects of tDCS can last 30 to 90 minutes. His lab tested subjects on remembering the names of famous people and landmarks.
“We were able to demonstrate that stimulation of the right anterior temporal lobe, which may be involved in linking face recognition to our knowledge of a person, resulted in improved naming for more difficult to retrieve people,” Wolk wrote in an e-mail.
Penn researchers Roy Hamilton and Branch Coslett are using the tDCS technique to rehabilitate stroke patients who have suffered a language impairment condition known as aphasia.
Wolk wrote that tDCS is also used to study depression, obesity, impulse control and motor rehabilitation in other labs.
According to Wolk, Penn and Temple researchers have been using tDCS for two years, but it has been a known technology since the 1960s.
Olson clarified that tDCS is unlike the electricity-using techniques depicted in Frankenstein and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Wolk wrote that electroconvulsive therapy, a controversial procedure often shown in films about mental illness, “is very different” from tDCS. He said
the former causes neurons to fire and induce seizures — unlike tDCS, which a test subject may not even feel.
Olson said another new study using the technique will apply tDCS to improve working memory and attention. Researchers will begin recruiting students for the trial soon.
“Much needs to be learned about the properties of stimulation that are best for the variety of conditions being studied,” Wolk wrote. “Nonetheless, all indications suggest it is very safe and therefore has great potential.”
