Elderly people exhibiting memory disturbances that do not affect their normal, daily life suffer from a condition called “mild cognitive impairment” (MCI). Some MCI patients go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease within a few years, whereas other cases remain stable, exhibiting only benign senile forgetfulness. It is crucial to develop simple, blood-based tests enabling early identification of these patients that will progress in order to begin therapy as soon as possible, potentially delaying the onset of dementia. [continue reading…]
Alzheimers
A camera originally invented to help jog the memories of people with Alzheimer’s disease will soon be launched by a UK-based firm. Microsoft Research’s innovative SenseCam technology can help people who have suffered from memory loss by enabling them to recall previously inaccessible memories. [continue reading…]
While the occasional all-nighter to cram for exams or finish a grant proposal may seem like no big deal, losing sleep night after night could take its toll on brain health in later life, two new studies suggest. Based on microdialysis experiments in live mice, Dave Holtzman, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and colleagues report that extracellular amyloid-β levels in the brain fall during slumber and rise with wakefulness. They discovered that these Aβ dynamics rely on the hormone orexin, and that forcing animals to sleep or stay awake decreases or increases Aβ plaque formation accordingly in a mouse model for Alzheimer disease. Holtzman presented some of these findings last year at the Human Amyloid Imaging meeting in Chicago (see ARF conference story). The full report was published online yesterday in Science. [continue reading…]
A postgraduate researcher at the University of Hertfordshire has found that Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) results in greater language impairments in more highly-educated than less learned patients.
The research also revealed that women with the disease fare worse on language tasks, which have been traditionally associated with better performance in healthy women. [continue reading…]
