A new study has found that using electrical stimulation on specific brain areas may help some people with Alzheimer’s disease improve their memory. In a small trial, patients who received the treatment showed better verbal learning for up to eight weeks.
The research, led by scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center, suggests that this technique, known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), could become a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s and other memory-related disorders like Lewy body dementia.
Alzheimer’s disease is a condition that slowly damages memory and thinking abilities. Most current treatments focus on reducing harmful brain changes, such as plaque buildup and protein tangles, which disrupt brain function.
However, tDCS takes a different approach—it doesn’t change the disease itself but instead aims to restore communication pathways in the brain, helping nerve cells work more effectively.
The study, published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, tested whether tDCS could improve memory by stimulating a part of the brain called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in memory and learning.
The trial included 25 Alzheimer’s patients from cognitive clinics in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Half of them received actual brain stimulation, while the other half got a placebo treatment (sham stimulation) with no electrical current.
The patients in the treatment group had electrodes placed on their scalps and received mild electrical stimulation for 20 minutes a day over 10 sessions in two weeks. Some patients reported tingling, itching, or a prickling sensation on their heads during the treatment.
Before and after the trial, all participants took memory and thinking tests. The results were encouraging—about one-third of the patients who received the real brain stimulation showed significant improvement in verbal learning, meaning they could better remember and repeat words they had just heard. None of the patients in the control group showed the same level of improvement.
In addition to memory improvements, some participants also became better at quickly coming up with words, such as naming objects or actions. Specifically, 25% of those who received a lower level of electrical stimulation and 33% of those who received a higher level improved in this skill. Again, none of the control group patients showed meaningful improvements.
Interestingly, for some patients who received lower levels of stimulation, the positive effects lasted for up to eight weeks. This suggests that tDCS could have lasting benefits and might be a useful tool for managing some symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
However, not all patients responded to the treatment. Researchers believe that individual differences in brain structure and the extent of brain shrinkage caused by Alzheimer’s could have played a role. In future studies, scientists plan to use brain scans to personalize where and how the stimulation is applied for each patient.
The lead researcher, Dr. Christian LoBue, noted that while the study was small, the results are promising. He compared them to early trials of brain stimulation treatments for depression, which later led to FDA-approved therapies. He emphasized that further research is needed to confirm these findings and explore whether tDCS could help patients form long-term memories.
Although this study is just a first step, it opens the door to new possibilities for treating Alzheimer’s disease. If future research confirms these benefits, brain stimulation could become an important tool for improving memory and cognitive function in people living with Alzheimer’s and similar conditions.
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The research findings can be found in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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