Treating Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) with Light and Sound
Treating Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) with Light and Sound
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发表时间：
2020-02
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通讯作者：
W. Lukiw
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作者：
W. Lukiw
正常的人类大脑通过复杂的获取、协调、整合和处理多种不同的传入输入来发挥功能，其中最突出和最重要的是环境/外部来源的光和声音输入。视觉和听觉刺激加起来约占人脑传入输入的85%。这种协调和综合的神经活动在大脑中自然产生的伽马振荡在25赫兹和140赫兹之间，被认为是多种大脑功能的基础，如注意力、行为、认知处理和记忆。这些自然振荡，有时被称为生物节律或生物节律，可能会随着年龄的增长而明显中断，特别是在潜伏的、与年龄相关的、进行性和最终致命的神经系统疾病中，如阿尔茨海默病（AD）和额颞叶痴呆（FTD）。麻省理工学院（MIT）蔡立辉（Li-Huei Tsai）的研究小组最近在声学和视觉伽马振荡相结合的研究工作及其对神经细胞网络认知功能的显著积极影响，提出了一种有趣的可能性，即人工的大脑视觉和声学刺激可以成功地用于保持神经连通性、神经元密度和突触信号功能，并引发显著的神经保护，以对抗进行性，与年龄相关的炎症和退行性神经病理[1]。
Normal human brain functions through the complex acquisition, coordination, integration and processing of multiple and different afferent inputs and amongst the most prominent and important of these are the environmentally/externally-sourced input of light and sound. Together visual and acoustic stimulation accounts for about ~85% of the afferent input to the human brain. The natural generation of gamma oscillations in the brain between 25 Hz and 140 Hz from this coordinated and integrated neural activity are thought to underlie multiple brain functions as diverse as attention, behavior, cognitive processing and memory. These natural oscillations, sometimes referred to as biological rhythms or biorhythms, may be significantly disrupted as we age and especially so in insidious, age-related, progressive and ultimately lethal neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The recent research work by Li-Huei Tsai’s research group at MIT on combined acoustic and visual gamma oscillation entrainment and its significantly positive effects on the cognitive functions of neural cell networks raises the intriguing possibility that artificial visual and acoustic stimulation of the brain can be successfully exploited to preserve both neural connectivity, neuronal densities and synaptic signalling function and elicit significant neuroprotection against progressive, age-related inflammatory and degenerative neuropathology [1].