Positive thinking
UCI study suggests that lifelong learning delays dementia.
You've heard the saying: If you want to keep your mind sharp, use it or lose it. Think, learn, do.
It's not an empty bromide. Neurobiologists like UC Irvine's Frank LaFerla continue to find evidence that keeping your mind active can delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the most common dementia among older people.
Working with mice, LaFerla slowed the development of the disease by having the animals learn to locate and remember the location of a platform while they were swimming in a shallow pool of water.
LaFerla and researchers Kim Green and Lauren Billings used mice that had been bred to have plaques and tangles, the two lesions believed to cause most cases of Alzheimer's disease.
The finding was reported recently in the Journal of Neuroscience.
There are dozens of anti-dementia drugs in various stages of development. But LaFerla and other scientists say such things as memory and learning exercises could be an important supplement to fighting Alzheimer's, a disorder that afflicts about 4.5 million Americans.
LaFerla recently discussed his work, and the larger field of Alzheimer's research, in a series of interviews.
Q: Not long ago, you gave a speech at UCI titled "Winning the war against Alzheimer's." Why do you believe scientists are winning?
A: We are at the point where we have a thorough understanding of the disease and have identified a tremendous number of promising drug targets. Drug companies throughout the world are investing heavily to find molecules that attack these targets, and the possibility of immunizing against the disease in both humans and mice looks promising.
Scientists also have identified numerous risk factors for the disease which have led us, and others, to explore lifestyle changes, such as learning exercises.
Q: In your research, you placed mice in a shallow pool of water and let them find their way to a small platform. This occurred at intervals lasting more than a year. Over that period, you observed how well they remembered the location of the platform. Did the learning exercise significantly delay the onset of Alzheimer's, or was it modest?
A: We only put the mice through the mental training once every three months. It wasn't like they did the equivalent of a person doing a daily crossword puzzle. But when we compared the mice that had undergone these mild learning tasks to those that had not we found striking biochemical differences. The exercise had prevented the formation of brain amyloid beta plaque, one of the main causes of Alzheimer's. The mice also had less tangles, the other lesion that causes the disease.
The brains of the mice that went through the exercise didn't age as fast as mice that didn't. We might be able to delay the onset of symptoms longer with a greater variety of learning tasks that would be performed more often.
And if we can identify the specific pathways in the brain that are turned on by learning, we might have a new target for Alzheimer's drugs.
Q. The National Institutes of Health recently awarded you $1.8 million to build on this work by performing a greater variety of learning exercises with mice. What kind of things are you considering?
A: We plan to investigate other forms of mental stimulation. For example, we can allow mice to go through a maze shaped like a T. The first time they go through they'll go in one direction. Then the next time, they'll go the other way. Mice like to explore what's novel. This can be a good way to study their working memory.
Another thing we can do is enrich their environment. Most research mice live in a small cage with bedding. We could put them in larger cages that also contain toys. This enrichment could stimulate brain activity and slow the onset of Alzheimer's.
Q: I imagine that many people wonder how good of a model mice are for neuro-degenerative diseases that occur in humans. What's the answer?
A: To be honest, they're not perfect. But they can learn cognitive tasks, which we can use as a functional readout of how good their memory is. And there definitely are similarities between the anatomy and biochemistry of their brains and those of humans. A lot of the drug therapies that have and are being developed for Alzheimer's, including possible immunization, wouldn't be possible without first doing work with mice.
Q: Studies have shown that people who are well-educated are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than people who are poorly educated. Could a poorly educated person improve their chances of holding off the disease by becoming serious learners when they're, say, in their 50s and 60s?
A: I don't think it would hurt, but I don't know. And we should put this into perspective. Well-educated people do have a lower chance of developing the disease. But they tend to decline faster when they get it. That's because the initial diagnosis is usually made later than it is with people who are less well-educated. They have enough brain capacity to cope with early symptoms of the disease.
Q: You're 43. Is Alzheimer's likely to be an easily treated disease by the time you're 63?
A: Brain diseases are very complex so I don't know that I'd say easily treated. However, I think we'll have more success in preventing Alzheimer's and in treating those who develop the disease. There's going to be a big need for that. Alzheimer's mostly affects people who are over 65. And people are living longer lives. It's going to put incredible demands on health care, and we need to be able to deal with it.
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
