Here’s What Brain-Stimulating Memory Enhancement Feels Like

Scientists found that electrical brain stimulation improved memory among older adults in a recent study. I went to the lab to try it out myself.

Photo courtesy of Robert Reinhart, Boston University

The moment the researchers start firing electricity into my brain, I feel a repetitive pinching sensation on the left side of my head. It’s prickly and annoying, just short of painful.

Robert Reinhart, a neuroscientist at Boston University who is demonstrating his research on me, assures me that the feeling will subside in about 30 seconds as the skin cells on my scalp get accustomed to the electric current passing through them. He’s right: The sensation soon downshifts to a persistent tingle — noticeable, but no longer irritating.

This makes it much easier to resume the memory test I’m trying to complete.

I’m sitting in a chair in a little room in Reinhart’s lab, wearing a cap of electrodes and holding a video game controller in both hands. On a table in front of me is a computer monitor that displays a series of images, each one flashed on the screen for less than a second. I am shown mundane objects such as a book, an abacus, a glass of orange juice, or, more incongruously, a creepy clown puppet. After a few seconds of…