EEG used to track memory skills

Source：Sandia National Laboratories Release Date：2012-09-19 252

Medical Equipment

Researchers able to detect when people effectively remember things

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have been able to show that it is possible to predict how well people remember information by monitoring their brain activity while they study using traditional electroencephalography (EEG) sensors.

The team, led by Laura Matzen of Sandia’s cognitive systems group, monitored test subjects’ brain activity while they studied word lists, then used the EEG to predict who would remember the most information. A baseline of what brain activity looked like for good and poor memory performance was used to predict using a computer model which of the test subjects would perform best.

The computer model successfully predicted five of the 23 people tested would perform best. These five test subjects remembered 72% of the words on average, compared to 45% for the rest of the subjects.

The study is the first of two parts, with the other aiming to predict who will benefit most from memory training. The results of this second part are still being analysed but Matzen has said that preliminary results have been encouraging.

The researchers hope that the study will eventually lead to technology that can be used in helping tailor different learning methods and further aid understanding of how the brain controls memory.NIKE