UCLA scientists strengthen memory by stimulating key site in brain

UCLA neuroscientists have demonstrated that they can strengthen memory in human patients by stimulating a critical junction in the brain. The team focused on a brain site called the entorhinal cortex. Considered the doorway to the hippocampus, which helps form and store memories, the entorhinal cortex plays a crucial role in transforming daily experience into memories. The researchers followed seven epilepsy patients who already had electrodes implanted in their brains to pinpoint the origin of their seizures. The researchers monitored the electrodes to record neuron activity as memories were being formed. Using a video game featuring a taxi cab in a cyber city, the researchers tested whether deep-brain stimulation altered recall. "When we stimulated the nerve fibers in the patients' entorhinal cortex during learning, they later recognized landmarks and navigated the routes more quickly," said Dr. Itzhak Fried, professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.