Brain Stimulation For People With Alzheimer’s Disease

Do you know what gamma waves are? Do you know the benefits of brain stimulation as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease? Advances in science and technology and their relationship have made it possible to develop new treatments that are literally a brilliant form of treatment for these patients.

Alzheimer’s disease remains a mystery. It is a disease that doctors can only confirm after death. Its origin is still unclear.

No therapy, no drugs or other forms of treatment have yet been shown to slow or reverse this disease. Therefore, any small progress that slows down its development or even improves cognition is a great achievement.

What are gamma waves?

These are neural oscillation patterns whose frequency range is between 20 and 100 Hz. They usually manifest around 40 Hz.

These waves reflect high brain activity. Higher than that reflected by beta waves, which are those that are present when a person thinks deeply. These waves indicate that the brain is working “at full speed” and activate different brain regions.

In addition, some believe that these waves are those triggered by complex executive functions or higher mental activity. These are complex activities such as orientation, attention, awareness and reasoning and require coordinated activation of nerve cells in different brain regions. Everything for integrating different types of information with which you can understand reality.

However, it seems that these waves not only reflect this type of activity but also that it has nothing to do with concentration. They also appear to be related to explosive behaviors, such as anxiety and fear.

What does brain stimulation do for Alzheimer’s disease?

As we mentioned at the beginning, the origin of Alzheimer’s disease is still unknown. Researchers are aware of certain pathophysiological changes that are characteristic of the disease. For example, deposits of amyloid-beta protein that stop forming plaques around nerve cells and render them ineffective. In addition, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles are formed and the presence of phosphorylated tau protein is indicated.

According to the studies, gamma activity in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients changes. This can contribute to deficits in complex cognitive functions, such as those we mention above.

Based on these findings, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) designed a study of genetically modified mice. The aim was to produce an excess of beta-amyloid in these mice with Alzheimer’s disease.

How to increase gamma activity in the brain and the health benefits

The experiments are led by Li-Huei Tsai, director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. It consisted of stimulating the activity of gamma waves from mice with Alzheimer’s disease using a flashing light at 40 Hz.

The results revealed that the amount of beta-amyloid plaque and phosphorylated tau protein decreased drastically. Not only that, the waves improved the activity of microglia, the cells responsible for cleaning waste in the brain.

In this first experiment, they limited themselves to stimulating the gamma activity of the visual cortex. But they wanted to go further. Thus, they attempted to induce gamma oscillations by exposure to 40 Hz tones. In addition to reducing the amount of beta-amyloid in the auditory cortex, it also decreased in the hippocampus. If you do not know, this region is crucial for memory formation.

Not satisfied with the result, the researchers decided to see what effect combines both types of visual and auditory stimulation. They then found that the results were not only positive but were twice as beneficial as each of the stimulation methods alone. Even the response from microglia was much stronger.

Further research on brain stimulation in Alzheimer’s disease

Tsai and her colleagues found that the beneficial effects of brain stimulation diminished in the rodents who underwent stimulation and then rested for a week. This may indicate that this type of therapy needs to be intensive to be effective.

This technique has so far only been performed on mice with Alzheimer’s disease, however, testing with healthy people has begun. Recently, tests on patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease have also begun.

The most important puzzle remains to be solved: will a human brain behave in the same way as a rodent’s brain does?

What do you think it would mean to discover that this type of stimulation can really slow down or even stop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease? Some say it would be a revolution. This is because there is still no effective treatment for this, the most common dementia disease in the world.