Back in March of this year, I wrote a blog called “Smart Dementia Tracker?” You can find it by clicking on Dementia in the Tag Cloud. Since then, the idea has developed rather alarmingly.
There has been a potentially remarkable breakthrough in the treatment of memory loss. Research conducted at Boston University compared the short term memory performance of younger people with that of people over 60. Needless to say, the young people significantly out performed the older generation. No surprise there then.
But when they zapped the older people with weak electric shocks to their brains their memory performance improved to the level of people half their age. Wow! Although this is not exactly a surprise, because I think that the Victorians used this approach in mental hospitals over a 100 years ago. I’m not entirely sure it was all that successful then.
Still, you never know! This could hold out the prospect of teams of older people competing on University Challenge and beating up a group of upstart know-it-all young graduates. They just need to be sitting on electric chairs!
Who knows where this might lead ? Electric starting blocks at the next Olympic Games could see a 90 year old outrunning Usain Bolt to the finishing line 😀
Maybe, with a finger in the electric plug socket first thing in the morning, I could remember where I left my glasses, or my car keys, or my hankie, or what was it I was looking for ?
GrumbleSmiles 