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Scientists Pinpoints Brain Waves That Distinguish False Memories from Real Ones
October 24, 2007 at 4:57 PM
General Health News
The new findings are significant because they may help improve researchers understanding of how memory works, and lead to a new strategy to enable epilepsy patients retain cognitive function.
The researchers recorded brain activity from 52 neurosurgical patients being treated for drug-resistant epilepsy, in order to test whether distinct patterns of electrophysiological activity prior to a response can distinguish true from false memories.
The patients were asked to perform a verbal free-recall task while researchers used an array of implanted electrodes and intracranial electroencephalographic recordings to locate where in their brains the seizures originated.
For the verbal free-recall task, the patients studied lists of words, which they were asked to recall at a later stage. It was found that the participants recalled some numbers of correct items, and also made a small number of errors while recalling words that had not appeared on the target list.
As the patients performed the memory game, the researchers observed electrical activity in their brains to determine whether specific brain waves were associated with successfully storing and retrieving memories. It was found that a fast brain wave called the gamma rhythm increased as the participants studied a word that they would later recall. The same waves, whose voltage rises and fall between 50 and 100 times per second, also rose in the half-second prior to participants correctly recalling an item.
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