Brain Pacemakers

[shnozzola]

In research under way now:

—The Toronto researchers have teamed with four U.S. medical centers — Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Florida and Arizona's Banner Health System — to try DBS [Deep Brain Stimulation - shock] in a part of the brain called the fornix, one of those memory hubs, in 40 patients. Half will have their electrodes turned on two weeks after the operation and the rest in a year, an attempt to spot any placebo effect from surgery.

—At Ohio State, Rezai is implanting the electrodes into a different spot, the frontal lobes, that his own DBS work suggests could tap into cognition and behavior pathways. That study will enroll 10 participants including Sanford.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=169880440

- you mean we aren't just praying for an end to Alzheimers? 

[Traveler]

Very promising. There's a very strong history of Alzeimer's-like dementia on one side of my family. I feel as if my memory is not as good as it used to be, and I'm terrified I'll end up like my relatives.

[Barracuda]

Never heard of an actual alzeihmer's application before, but deep brain stimulation ("brain pacemakers") has been around for a while, back into the nineties.

[Anfauglir]

Very promising. There's a very strong history of Alzeimer's-like dementia on one side of my family. I feel as if my memory is not as good as it used to be, and I'm terrified I'll end up like my relatives.

I'm finding it harder to learn new stuff, but thus far the old stuff isn't falling out.  But like you, I am also terrified of heading down that path - to the stage that I have already started thinking about obtaining a stock of pills so I can opt out as and when I am still capable. 

While I'm pleased at this article, it seems to be something that will stabilise the brain in a particular state rather than reverse the process - and that relies on accurate early diagnosis, which doesn't happen as often as it should.