First Human Trials Test Light and Sound Therapy For Alzheimer's Disease 23
A new study published in the journal PLoS ONE has reported on the first human tests of an experimental therapy using sound and light to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD). New Atlas reports: Over the last seven years, Li-Huei Tsai and colleagues at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have been investigating an unusual hypothesis. The researchers found toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease could be eliminated from mouse brains following exposure to flickering lights. Further research found the magic frequency was 40 Hz. When animals were exposed to both sound and light at that frequency, improvements in brain health were detected. Of course, these kinds of animal tests don't mean much if they can't be replicated in humans, so after further investigations revealed how this sensory therapy could be affecting a mouse brain, the researchers started preliminary human experiments. Working with colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, two clinical trials set out to test the therapy in humans.
The first Phase 1 study recruited 43 participants to test whether this kind of light and sound exposure was safe, and did anything to the human brain. Each subject was monitored using EEG measures while experiencing a short exposure to what has been dubbed by the researchers as GENUS (Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory stimulation). This preliminary study comprised both healthy and cognitively impaired subjects, as well as participants with epilepsy in order to evaluate the seizure potential of the treatment. After a short exposure to the sensory stimulation, the researchers found a number of brain regions synchronize with the 40-Hz frequency.
The second trial recruited 15 participants with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Each participant was given a device to take home and use for around an hour a day. The device was essentially a small LED white board with an iPad in the middle and a soundbar underneath. While watching videos on the iPad, the LED light panel on the white board would flicker at a rate of 40 Hz and the soundbar would play a 40-Hz tone. Half the cohort was randomized to a sham control condition, exposed to a constant white light and white noise. Compliance was relatively high between both the GENUS and the sham groups, with participants completing the daily requirement of exposure around 90 percent of the time. After around three months of use the researchers could detect statistically significant differences between the two groups, both on brain imaging and memory tests. The researchers are cautious not to overstate their initial findings, the report says. "It's early days for human studies [...], larger cohorts of patients are needed to better understand the impacts of this sensory stimulation and longer trials will hopefully establish more prominent beneficial effects."
The first Phase 1 study recruited 43 participants to test whether this kind of light and sound exposure was safe, and did anything to the human brain. Each subject was monitored using EEG measures while experiencing a short exposure to what has been dubbed by the researchers as GENUS (Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory stimulation). This preliminary study comprised both healthy and cognitively impaired subjects, as well as participants with epilepsy in order to evaluate the seizure potential of the treatment. After a short exposure to the sensory stimulation, the researchers found a number of brain regions synchronize with the 40-Hz frequency.
The second trial recruited 15 participants with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Each participant was given a device to take home and use for around an hour a day. The device was essentially a small LED white board with an iPad in the middle and a soundbar underneath. While watching videos on the iPad, the LED light panel on the white board would flicker at a rate of 40 Hz and the soundbar would play a 40-Hz tone. Half the cohort was randomized to a sham control condition, exposed to a constant white light and white noise. Compliance was relatively high between both the GENUS and the sham groups, with participants completing the daily requirement of exposure around 90 percent of the time. After around three months of use the researchers could detect statistically significant differences between the two groups, both on brain imaging and memory tests. The researchers are cautious not to overstate their initial findings, the report says. "It's early days for human studies [...], larger cohorts of patients are needed to better understand the impacts of this sensory stimulation and longer trials will hopefully establish more prominent beneficial effects."
Good old neon lights (Score:4, Funny)
Neon lights flicker too, at about 100Hz/120Hz (depending on the mains). I can't believe we were that close to solving Alzheimer's with keeping people employed longer in office cubicles!
Re: Good old neon lights (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Neon lights flicker too, at about 100Hz/120Hz (depending on the mains). I can't believe we were that close to solving Alzheimer's with keeping people employed longer in office cubicles!
I know you were joking, but what you wrote points in the direction of what I came to say. Keeping in mind that this is sheer ignorant speculation, what if the 50/60 Hz and/or 100/120 Hz stimulation we're routinely subjected to actually cause a bit of neurological damage or decay? if 40Hz promotes entrainment and reduces amyloid levels, might other frequencies promote disentrainment and/or increase amyloid plaques?
Re: (Score:2)
Treatment Options (Score:2)
just $24.95! [adafruit.com]
Must not have had a lot of takers. I just found mine. I stopped using it because the audio was so terrible, you can do binaural beats without it sounding like an Atari game
Re: (Score:3)
just $24.95! [adafruit.com]
Must not have had a lot of takers. I just found mine. I stopped using it because the audio was so terrible, you can do binaural beats without it sounding like an Atari game
Yep. A really early programming effort by myself was a binaural beat generator. I use them all the time. Seems to help some with my tinnitus as well.
My goto is Theta Which I use for tasks that need concentration and problem solving - it isn't supposed to be used for that. That's supposedly beta beats. But Beta simply agitates me.
I suspect my noggin might be wired a bit differently than most.
A bit old news? (Score:3)
YouTube already has 40 Hz flickering videos for this since over 4 years.
Re: A bit old news? (Score:2)
You'd need 120 Hz Refresh for that to work , wouldnt you?
Re: (Score:2)
You'd need 120 Hz Refresh for that to work , wouldnt you?
This is hilarious. Nearly as entertaining as SDR vs HDR comparisons in an SDR video. Suppose the other possibility is to find a panel with a native 50hz refresh.
Control group (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I take it that the control group gets placebo light and placebo sound?
I know not RTFA is old hat here, but you could at least RTFS:
Half the cohort was randomized to a sham control condition, exposed to a constant white light and white noise
What about movement at 40 Hz? (Score:2)
E.g. a piezoelectric buzzer or a motor that moves to and fro at 40 Bs
Re: What about movement at 40 Hz? (Score:2)
Or something that delivers tiny DC shocks 40 times a second
Re: (Score:1)
The whole reason for the popularity of binaural beats is that these low frequencies are essentially absorbed and filtered by the skull and tissues.
I'm curious about the result of using something like bone conduction headphones, essentially introducing vibrations.
I've also wondered about the reverse. Everyone focuses on the EEG style path of reading brainwaves electrically. But if those frequencies are absorbed by the skull it stands to reason there is an interference pattern that could be teased out.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, I wondered what binaural beats were for. Thank you. So it exploits some sort of neural interference pattern. However, these researchers actually seem to have a pure 40Hz tone. I heard one on Youtube for a few minutes yesterday.
Everyone focuses on the EEG style path of reading brainwaves electrically. But if those frequencies are absorbed by the skull it stands to reason there is an interference pattern that could be teased out.
Can you elaborate? Are you saying an EEG is the resultant interference pattern, and its component waves can be teased out?
Re: (Score:2)
"Ah, I wondered what binaural beats were for. Thank you. So it exploits some sort of neural interference pattern."
Sort of. It was found that while the low frequencies used in brainwaves were absorbed by the skull, if you play a higher frequency tone in both ears and offset left v right by a low frequency the brain will register the gap as a distinct beat and begin synchronizing with it.
My point was not so much how binaural beats work as what they are intended to work around. Absorption by the skull.
"Can you
There will never be a study (Score:1)
The fact it took academia 7 years to conduct a very small trial of a light that is switched every 25 ms and a sound generator that chirps at the same cadence speaks for itself.
Nobody will ever organize a real trial for this. There is no money to be made.
Re: (Score:2)
Two trials in seven years, plus whatever time they spent researching the basics before they were in a position to do a phase I.
Human research takes time. There are all these pesky ethics reviews and controls. Blame the Nazis.
Re: (Score:2)
Two trials in seven years, plus whatever time they spent researching the basics before they were in a position to do a phase I.
Human research takes time.
What it takes is money nobody is willing to spend. Actual sars2 drugs being developed, tested and deployed in a year made this much perfectly clear. Somehow I'm supposed to believe a flashing display "takes time" as in four years to produce a tiny phase i study...sorry, not buying it.
There are all these pesky ethics reviews and controls.
Ethics and controls? Like Aducanumab's FDA approval? Those ethics and controls?
Blame the Nazis.
Think I'll stick with entrenched self-interest.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, the conspiracy theories. They are very popular among people who don't know WTF they're talking about.
I'm currently trying to get a web page that collects cognitive data approved. It's paid for, and constructed, but getting people to agree what data to collect, getting ethics to approve it, and getting a hospital IT department to host it has taken a year, and will likely be two before it's done. And that's without an intervention that could potentially be directly harmful, or all the extra stuff you have
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, the conspiracy theories. They are very popular among people who don't know WTF they're talking about.
Here I was looking forward to a well reasoned, objective, evidence based response. Oh well.
I'm currently trying to get a web page that collects cognitive data approved. It's paid for, and constructed, but getting people to agree what data to collect, getting ethics to approve it, and getting a hospital IT department to host it has taken a year, and will likely be two before it's done.
Don't know what to make of this or why this anecdote is relevant. We have seen medicine move quickly when there is $$$ pushing it so I know it is at least possible. It is well known the opposite is also possible. I guess I'll find out for sure in the next few years or decades whether or not my assumption is correct. Look forward to a trial involving thousands of people showing up on clinicaltrials.gov.
You can alw
Re: (Score:1)