"Memory-Boosting Brain Implants Are In The Works, Would You Get One?"
In recent years neuroscientists have made major advances in cracking the code of memory, figuring out exactly how the human brain stores information and learning to reverse-engineer the process. Now they’ve reached the stage where they’re starting to put all of that theory into practice. Things heated up in 2002, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved deep-brain stimulation as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects an estimated 10 million people around the world. This treatment, in which a pacemaker-like device directs tiny electrical currents into the brain, has proven to be highly effective at controlling the tremors and rigidity that are a hallmark of Parkinson’s. In addition to Parkinson’s, deep brain stimulation is now being used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and epilepsy. “We see people improve by 40 percent or even 70 percent, which is huge,” says Heather Berlin, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
- Heather A. Berlin, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai