Language Ability of Alzheimer's Patients Improves With Magnets

A brain stimulation technique - repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation- has been used by scientists to improve the language ability of Alzheimer's patients.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS for short, is a non-invasive technique that involves the delivery of a rapid succession of magnetic pulses in frequencies of up to 100 Hz.

Top 10 Amazing Brain Facts
The brain is the most amazing and complex organ in this universe and has billions of nerve cells called as neurons. Medindia brings to you the top 10 amazing brain facts.

Previous research has shown that this can alter neuronal activity, depending on the frequency of the stimulation.

The technique, which was applied to the prefrontal lobes for 25 minutes each time at a frequency of 20 Hz, was tested in 10 patients with moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Half were randomly assigned to receive four weeks of rTMS (five days a week), and half were given a dummy treatment for two weeks, followed by two weeks of rTMS.

Brilliant Human Brain
The most amazing and complex organ in the entire universe, the human brain continues to remain an enigma.

Each participant was tested for memory, executive functions, such as planning, and language at the start of the study, then after two and four weeks, and again after eight weeks.

Significant differences emerged between the two groups after two weeks in respect of the ability of participants to understand spoken language.

Schizophrenia impairs body language comprehension
For most of us, reading others body language comes easy and our response is often based on this comprehension

The percentage of correct answers after a comprehension test rose from 66percent to over 77 percent among those given rTMS, whereas there was no change in those given the dummy technique.

There was no further change after four weeks, but the improvements were still evident at eight weeks.

Magnets to the rescue of Alzheimer�s patients
Scientists at New York based City University have successfully tested magnetic stimulation to promote new neurones in a part of the mice’s brain that relates to memory

rTMS did not alter other language abilities or other cognitive functions, including memory, which suggests that the technique is specific to the language domain of the brain, when applied to the prefrontal lobes, say the authors.

It is not completely clear how the technique works. Rhythmic stimulation may alter cortical activity in the brain, so readjusting unhealthy patterns induced by disease or damage, suggest the authors.

There is some evidence to back this up as imaging studies of people with congenital or acquired brain damage have shown that certain areas of the brain seem to be plastic and that cortical activity can be "reorganised" as a result.

"The present preliminary results ... hold considerable promise, not only for advancing our understanding of brain plasticity mechanisms, but also for designing new rehabilitation strategies in patients with neurodegenerative disease," the authors conclude.

The study has been published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Source-ANI