Alzheimer’s research - Memory discovery offers hope

Through the ages the wonders of science have never ceased to amaze. A chance discovery in a Canadian hospital during an operation on an obese man to try to suppress his appetite has uncovered a way of unlocking people’s memories.

When a part of the man’s brain was stimulated with electrodes, it did nothing to his appetite, but he suddenly recalled an incident of 30 years earlier in vivid detail. When the current was switched off, the memory stopped, but when the stimulation was increased the memory became even more vivid.

A pacemaker devise with electrodes to stimulate the brain was implanted in the man’s chest.