By Gregory Kellett, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at SFSU and UCSF, and science writer for Lumos Labs.
Scientists at the university of Sydney in Australia have recently claimed to be able to make people’s memory more accurate by reducing the occurrence of false memories… via magnets.
Although it is often possible to increase the precision of memory by paying better attention at the time of an event, little till now has been able to help improve remembrance after the fact.
The experimenters used electro-magnetic pulses via a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation to decrease brain activity in such a way as to mimic the minds of people with anterior temporal lobe dementia and autism. The logic behind this being that one of the common characteristics of these conditions is a more literal memory with greater accuracy for details.
Participants were given a list of words to memorize and then either actual magnetic brain manipulation, a sham manipulation or no treatment at all.
Those who actually had their brains magnetically pulsed after seeing the list of words showed a 36% decrease in false memories, meaning thinking a word was initially presented when it was not, over those whose brains were left untouched.
Although this leaves us with more questions than answers, the authors point to a possible future application in the courtroom, where memories frequently get a little too creative.
Reference:
Gallate, J., Chi, R., Ellwood, S., & Snyder, A. (2009). Reducing false memories by magnetic pulse stimulation. Neuroscience Letters, 449(3), 151-154. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2008.11.021.
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