DBS uses pacemaker-controlled electrodes implanted in the brain to stimulate the temporal lobe and the hippocampus, parts involved in memory and emotions.
The DBS experiment involving six Alzheimer's patients is reported in the Annals Of Neurology journal. Professor Andres Lozano, a neurosurgery expert at Toronto Western Hospital in Canada, is leading the team doing the experiment.
Lozano accidentally discovered that DBS enhances memory while using it to curb the appetite of a patient with obesity problem. After weeks under DBS, the 50-year-old patient vividly remembered events in his life 30 years ago.
Lozano is also using DBS to control the tremors in Parkinson's disease sufferers.
According to the Dailymail.co.uk, Lozano said the Alzheimer's patients are doing well so far and have not experienced significant side effects in the electrodes implanted in their brains.
