Deep brain stimulation evokes long-lost memories

deep_brain_stimulation.bmp


Canadian surgeons have made a serendipitous discovery. While using deep brain stimulation to try suppressing the appetite of a morbidly obese patient, they inadvertently evoked in the patient vivid autobiographical memories of an event that had taken place more than 30 years previously. They also found that the electrical stimulation improved the patient's performance on associative memory tasks.

These unexpected findings raise the possibility that deep brain stimulation could be used to treat patients with Alzheimer's Disease, and the research team is now beginning a small clinical trial involving 6 patients who have been diagnosed with that condition.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an invasive technique involving the implantation of an array of electrodes into the brain. The implant, which is usually attached by thin wires to a small battery which is itself implanted under the skin near the collarbone, acts as a " brain pacemaker" - it emits regular electrical pulses, which activate or inhibit specific regions of the brain.

DBS began as an experimental surgical technique about 10 years ago, but has since been used quite widely- and often successfully - to treat a various conditions. Following FDA approval in 2003, for example, the technique has been used to treat more than 30,000 patients with Parkinson's Disease (see this film clip); more recently, it has been used to treat depression and Tourette's Syndrome, and has even improved brain function in a patient in the minimally conscious state.

The patient in the current study question is a 50 year-old man who weighs 190kg; he had refused a gastric bypass and did not respond to numerous other treatments, including dietary regimes and medication. He was subsequently referred to a team of neurosurgeons, who later implanted electrodes into a nucleus in the ventral hypothalamus.

The hypothalamus controls the release of hormones, and is also involved in various metabolic functions. It is also known to contain a satiety centre, and surgeons have in the past treated obesity by lesioning the ventral nucleus. In this case, DBS was preferred over a hypothalamic lesion, because it is reversible. The surgical team, led by Andreas Lozano, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and Toronto Western Hospital, report their findings in the Annals of Neurology:

Unexpectedly, the patient reported sudden sensations that he described as "deja vu"...the perception of being in a park with friends, a familiar scene to him. He felt he was younger, around 30 years old. He recognized his epoch-appropriate girlfriend among the people. He did not see himself in the scene, but instead was an. The scene was in color; people were wearing identifiable clothes and were talking, but he could not decipher what they were saying. As the stimulation intensity was increased from 3.0 to 5.0 volts, he reported that the details in the scene became more vivid.

Equally remarkable was the effect of hypothalamic stimulation on the patient's performance on a standardized neuropsychological assessment and various memory tests. After 3 weeks of DBS, the patient performed significantly better on verbal learning and spatial associative memory tasks, as compared with before the surgery. His IQ score also apparently increased by 9 points following the treatment.

These effects were attributed directly to the electrodes embedded in his brain. In a double-blind experiment performed 3 weeks after implantation, the patient's scores on all the tasks returned to pre-operative levels when the electrodes were switched off, but improved again when they were switched back on.

The hypothalamus is not normally associated with memory, and the researchers believe that what they had observed was due to an adjacent and connected structure called the fornix. This is a component of the limbic system, a network of structures which includes the hippocampus and amygdala, and which is known to be involved in memory and emotion. Brain imaging confirmed that stimulation confirmed that stimulation of the hypothalamus led to increased activity in the hippocampus and other medial temporal lobe structures (see image at the top).

Now that it is known to alter memory function, electrical stimulation could be used by researchers to gain a better understanding of the substrates of memory in humans. And, because of the significant improvement in memory tasks demonstrated by this patient, Lozano and his colleagues have started a small clinical trial, in which 6 Alzheimer's patients will be treated with DBS. 3 of these have already had electrodes implanted into the hypothalamus, but it is still unclear if the findings of this study can be reproduced.

Reference:

Hamani, C. et al (2008). Memory enhancement induced by hypothalamic/fornix deep brain stimulation. Ann. Neurol. 63: 119-123. [Abstract]

More like this

Depression is a common neuropsychiatric disorder which affects at least 1 in 7 adults. The condition can have a major effect on patients' quality of life, and is a major cause of both disability and suicide. Many patients with depression can be treated effectively with antidepressant medications,…
Researchers report in today's issue of Nature that they have improved brain function in a minimally conscious patient by implanting electrodes into his brain. Schiff et al used deep brain stimulation (DBS), an experimental surgical technique that has previously been used to treat Parkinson's…
href="http://www.researchblogging.org"> alt="ResearchBlogging.org" src="http://www.researchblogging.org/public/citation_icons/rb2_large_gray.png" style="border: 0pt none ;"> href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_brain_stimulation" rel="tag">Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) currently…
Optogenetics is a newly developed technique based on a group of light-sensitive proteins called channelrhodopsins, which were isolated recently from various species of micro-organism. Although relatively new, this technique has already proven to be extremely powerful, because channelrhodopsins can…

Let me fix that for you:

Now that it is known to alter memory function, electrical stimulation could be used by researchers to gain a better understanding of the substrates of memory in humans by graduate students to ensure they never forget anything they read and land a good job at a fine institution by dint of their otherworldly memory.

There now, much better.*

*The joke only works if you imagine the bolded section is struck, which text can't apparently be on Scienceblogs.**

**Which, I guess, means the joke doesn't work. DAMN YOU SCIENCEBLOGS!

Interesting story. But wait...the patient refused a gastric bypass, but didn't object to having electrodes implanted in his brain?

After 3 weeks of DBS, the patient performed significantly better on verbal learning and spatial associative memory tasks, as compared with before the surgery. His IQ score also apparently increased by 9 points...

So what? Real Americans need to know: did he lose weight?

By Pierce R. Butler (not verified) on 30 Jan 2008 #permalink

How sure can we be that the supposedly vivid, autobiographical memories evoked here are actually accurate, rather than confabulated?

Good point Dunc. I was just thinking that too. The thing is, it is now clear that memory is reconstructive rather than reproductive, and that memories of real events consist at least partly of confabulation. So the extent to which the memories evoked in this patient are accurate is anybody's guess.

Hello Pierce Butler, in Gainesburg FL.
Long time no see. About 19 years.

Proper & fitting that I would find you on the most scientific blog in cyberland.

By gerald spezio (not verified) on 31 Jan 2008 #permalink

Hi Gerry - you still toughing it out in Fort Misery?

So as not to muddy up Mo's nice clean blog, feel free to contact me through pbutler AT igc DOT org...

By Pierce R. Butler (not verified) on 31 Jan 2008 #permalink

The thing is, it is now clear that memory is reconstructive rather than reproductive, and that memories of real events consist at least partly of confabulation.

Yes, that was what made me wonder... Plus there's also the whole false memory syndrome thing. It seems to me that without some independent check of whether the memories are accurate or not, it's very difficult to say exactly what's going on here. I've had some remarkably vivid drug-induced hallucinations in my time, some of which certainly had a very strong sensation of deja-vu, and involved people that I recognised. But I'm pretty sure they weren't memories... ;)

Something I was going to mention, but decided not to, was the work of Wilder Penfield, the neurosurgeon who electrically stimulated the cortices of conscious patients in order to determine the locus of epileptic activity. (This was in the 1950s and 60s.) A small number of Penfield's patients reported that stimulation evoked the recall of long-forgotten memories ; but I'm sure that I read somewhere that the memories turned out to be completely false.

Having said that, the more significant finding in this study is that the electrodes enhanced the patient's performance on the memory tasks. So the exact nature of the memory is almost irrelevant.