SCIENTISTS from Imperial College and Charing Cross Hospital believe that it may be possible to improve memory by up to 10 percent through the use of neurofeedback.

The results, announced in the International Journal of Psychophysiology last month, showed a link between neurofeedback training and improved memory in a 40 person trial.

Dr David Vernon, from Imperial College, Charing Cross campus, explained: "Previous research has indicated that neurofeedback can be used to help treat a number of conditions including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, epilepsy and alcoholism, by training particular aspects of brain Activity.

"However, this is the first time we have shown a link between the use of neurofeedback and improvements in memory."

Neurofeedback enable participants to normalize behaviour, stabilize mood and improve cognitive performance. It works by allowing people to watch their brain activity and find a way to correct or improve it.

Neurofeedback monitors brain activity through sensors attached to the scalp Which filters out key frequency components.

Filtered brainwaves are then 'fed back' to the individual in the form of a video game which the participant learns to control by altering particular aspects of their brain activity. The alteration in brain activity can influence cognitive performance.

Volunteers completed a number of neurofeedback sessions which required them to enhance one aspect of brain activity while simultaneously inhibiting others. Participants completed two tests to see if neurofeedback would influence working memory performance - the type used to hold and manipulate information during the performance of a task, such as maintaining a telephone number in mind in order to recall it later.

In both tests, volunteers were presented with a series of words from different categories, and were tested on how well they were able to recall words from a specific category.

Those receiving neurofeedback increased their recall from 70.6 percent to 81.6 percent, while recall in the control group increased from 72.5 percent to 75.1 per cent.

Professor John Gruzelier added: "Neurofeedback has been proven to be effective in altering brain activity, but the extent to which such alterations can influence behaviour are still unknown.

"Further tests are needed to confirm this, but if neurofeedback can positively influence the cognitive performance of healthy individuals, as we have previously shown on attention and musical performance, it opens up the possibility that such treatment may be beneficial for those suffering from cognitive deficits."