Some science news sounds like it’s straight out of a sci-fi movie. For example, a study that recently appeared in the journal Nature Neuroscience: Researchers had a group of volunteers
to her
. A comparison group received sham electric shocks to rule out a placebo effect.
While energized, subjects listened to lists of words to remember. And indeed: the method used by the researchers had an effect. Those who received targeted electric shocks were better at remembering the words than those who were only fooled into being shocked.
those with the lowest cognitive performance benefited the most from brain stimulation. The researchers hope that one day they will be able to use their method to help people who are affected by dementia or other cognitive impairments, for example.