Improve your memory and ease migraine with a ZAP to the brain

Though it may sound like something from science fiction, brain zapping -- or neuro-electrostimulation, as it's known -- is already being used to treat a variety of ailments. Researchers at Boston University recently reported that zapping the brains of older people could restore their thinking powers to those of someone in their 20s. 'Neuro-electrostimulation makes sense because the brain is an organ that works by electrical impulses, and there are many different techniques that can alter the brain's electrical activity, possibly for a therapeutic effect,' says Dr Lucia Li, a neurologist and clinical lecturer at Imperial College London. The brain-zapping treatment can be given via caps, headbands, or electrodes stuck to the scalp or even implanted in the brain. In some types of treatment, such as electroconvulsive therapy, used to treat severe depression, brain zapping is so powerful, patients have to be anaesthetised in case they hurt themselves.