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Alzheimer's Gene Already Shrinking Brain By Age of Three (telegraph.co.uk) 62

Posted by BeauHD from the sooner-than-later dept.
schwit1 quotes a report from The Telegraph: The Alzheimer's gene, which dramatically raises the risk of developing dementia, is already affecting carriers by the age of three, shrinking their brains and lowering cognition, a new study suggests. Children who carry the APOEe4 gene mutation, which raises the chance of dementia by 15 fold, were found to do less well in memory, attention and function tests. Areas of the brain affected by Alzheimer's disease, such as the hippocampus and parietal gyri, were also found to be up to 22 percent smaller in volume. [Around 14 percent of people carry the APOEe4 mutation. The research is the first to show that genetic changes which can lead to Alzheimerâ(TM)s are already affecting the brain extremely early in life. Scientists from the University of Hawaii, Yale and Harvard say screening for the gene could help doctors identify which children could benefit from early interventions, such as educational help, preventative treatments, health monitoring and increased exercise. The study involved 1,187 youngsters between the age of three and 20 who took part in genetic tests and brain scans as well as undertaking a series of tests to measure their thinking and memory skills.] According to research from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), infrequent use of a computer in later life could be an early sign of reduced cognitive ability.
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Alzheimer's Gene Already Shrinking Brain By Age of Three More

Alzheimer's Gene Already Shrinking Brain By Age of Three

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  • We shall see. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 15, 2016 @05:46AM (#52516705)

    According to research from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), infrequent use of a computer in later life could be an early sign of reduced cognitive ability.

    That study only showed an association between computer use and cognitive decline. And what I haven't seen is if folks who are suffering cognitive decline are reducing reading and other cognitive pursuits.

    Folks and the media extrapolate too much from individual studies - like that ONE study that showed that babies who heard Mozart in the womb became smarter and all those parents went out and bought Mozart CDs.

    And this study? Well we'll see.

  • bollocks (Score:4, Funny)

    by l3v1 ( 787564 ) on Friday July 15, 2016 @06:01AM (#52516751)
    "infrequent use of a computer in later life could be an early sign of reduced cognitive ability"

    However, infrequent reading of idiotic articles might just be an early sign of higher intelligence.

  • Starts all brain damage at a young age? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The constant preaching of hatred towards the western civilization and the indoctrination that any failure is the cause of this western civilization starts to form irreversible neurological links in the brain at the age of three. This can manifest at a later age by either cheering for every death after any terrorist attack, or by always asking more and more privileges, or by asking to get more and more positive discrimination, or by simply driving a truck through a crowded avenue where people are celebretati

  • Shrinking from the age of 3?? (Score:3)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Friday July 15, 2016 @08:10AM (#52517187) Homepage

    If the brain starting shrinking again at the age of 3 - an age at which it isn't even close to its adult size - the sufferers would never mentally progress beyond that age. Clearly they do so this article is rubbish from the 1st sentence.

    • It the Telegraph, I'm sure most of their editors and writers are APOEe4 carriers; one wouldn't expect them to know the difference between not growing to the expected size and shrinking.

  • Took some digging, but here is the original study [neurology.org] (paywalled).

    Contrary to the click-baity Telegraph article linked, the brains were not shrinking -- there was a correlation between the most strongly linked genes to Alzheimer's and relatively smaller/thinner areas of the brain associated with things like memory and executive function. There was also a correlation between these thin areas and reduced ability of the tested children.

    If reproducible, this result would be absolutely shocking. Our current unders [medscape.com]

  • This one is funny. Apparently, the universe has a sense of humor...

    • It doesn't have anything to do with computer addiction, rather a decrease in activities that are cognitively challenging. It's similar to how a person who does less reading as they age may be doing so due to cataract build-up which makes it more difficult for them to see and by extension read.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        And why do you think this explanation is necessary? Have you missed the satiric character of the posting entirely?

  • Since there is no cure.. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why dont they detect the gene in utero early in the pregnancy so the parents can abort if they so choose?

  • If computer use correlates inversely with risk of Alzheimer's, then I suspect that Slashdot readers are going to be completely immune from the disease.

  • Around 14 percent of people carry the APOEe4 mutation... shrinking brain by age of three...

    Finally! An explanation for those crazy-ass Trump supporters [youtube.com] that started off as Sanders supporters...

  • poor memory is not necessarily a downside. understanding is not just repurposing of knowledge to new contexts. it's also culling of unimport information. and forgetting is a culling mechanism. so this may be useful in long-term study of complicated ideas (the ones which require deep perception).

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