Can a wearable improve memory? Humm raises $2.6 million so consumers can find out
8Reported today on TechCrunch
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Can a wearable improve memory? Humm raises $2.6 million so consumers can find out
There's an emerging body of research suggesting that electrical stimulation applied to the brain can help improve memory and cognitive function.
A recent study conducted by researchers from Boston University this year found that 70 year-old participants in a clinical trial performed certain memory tasks as well as 20 year-olds after exposure to mild electrical neurostimulation. The results were published in April in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience, and reported by Science Daily.
Now Humm, a graduate of the Berkeley Skylab accelerator program, has raised $2.6 million to commercialize its own product, which draws from years of research into the effects of electrical stimulation on the brain.
The company actually conducted its own study with the University of California at Berkeley. Published earlier this year the report said that of the 40 participants in the study who were given Humm's wearable patches, all saw their performance on certain specific memory tests improve roughly 20% above the placebo or control group. It was an improvement approximately 120 times greater than the natural learning effect of the control group in the study, the company said.
Simply put, the electrical stimulation boosts brainwaves and enhances what neuroscientists call working memory, which determines the amount of information a person can retain at one time. The patch sends out a small electric pulse that triggers neurons to resonate together at a similar frequency. By prompting the more neurons to fire in concert, it primes more of the brain to process information.
Humm is one of several startups that are developing neuro-stimulation wearables for all kinds of appli