Making memories last using the peripheral effect of direct current stimulation
- Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
- Texas Tech University, United States
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States
Abstract
Most memories that are formed are forgotten, while others are retained longer and are subject to memory stabilization. We show that non-invasive transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the greater occipital nerve (NITESGON) using direct current during learning elicited a long-term memory effect. However, it did not trigger an immediate effect on learning. A neurobiological model of long-term memory proposes a mechanism by which memories that are initially unstable can be strengthened through subsequent novel experiences. In a series of studies, we demonstrate NITESGON's capability to boost the retention of memories when applied shortly before, during or shortly after the time of learning by enhancing memory consolidation via activation and communication in and between the locus coeruleus pathway and hippocampus by plausibly modulating dopaminergic input. These findings may have a significant impact for neurocognitive disorders that inhibit memory consolidation such as Alzheimer's disease.
Data availability
data is available: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15f46
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Data from: Making memories last using the peripheral effect of direct current stimulationDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.dbrv15f46.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Alzheimer Association (AARG-21-848486)
- Sven Vanneste
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: All experiments were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki (1964). Experiments 1-7 were approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Texas at Dallas, All participants signed a written informed consent and consent to publish was obtained.
Copyright
© 2023, Luckey et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Making memories last using the peripheral effect of direct current stimulation
eLife 12:e75586.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75586
