Today in TechJolting the brain with electricity could reverse damage caused by Alzheimer’s
According to the American Health Assistance Foundation, approximately 5.4 million Americans are suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and it's also the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those numbers have prompted medical researchers to explore treatments for the illness. A study by Andres Lozano from Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, Canada suggests jolting the brain with electrical impulses in a process known as deep brain stimulation. And results indicate that doing so reverses brain shrinkage brought about by the illness, thereby reducing the effects of the disease.
Alzheimer's is known to shrink a part of the brain called the hippocampus that's responsible for turning short-term memory into long-term. It also causes some parts to use less glucose than normal, indicating that they have ceased to function. To test their treatment, Lozano and his team inserted electrodes into the brains of six people diagnosed with the illness, next to a bundle of neurons that carries signals to and from the hippocampus. These electrodes send steady pulses of electricity at a rate of 130 times per second.
The first set of follow-up tests showed that the reduced glucose use in the brains of all six test subjects has been reversed. More recently, the scientists investigated the effects of the electrical stimulation to the hippocampus, and found positive results in two out of six subjects. "Not only did the hippocampus not shrink, it got bigger — by 5 per cent in one person and 8 per cent in the other," says Lozano. These two subjects exhibit better cognitive functions than the rest. After this initial testing, the researchers are looking to proceed with a larger trial consisting of 50 people.
Lozano himself can't explain how his treatment works. Based on his studies on mice, though, electrical stimulation generates new neurons as well as new proteins that form neuron connections. He believes that the fact that deep brain stimulation is already used as a treatment for Parkinson's disease means it's a viable option as an Alzheimer's treatment. We hope this and other possible treatments make it to mainstream use, so we won't need things like GPS footwear to keep track of those afflicted with the illness anymore.
[Image credit: maureen lunn]
This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca
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