Brain Mapping: Possible Road To A Cure

FLORIDA — Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior.  It is not a normal part of aging, although aging is the greatest risk factor.  Up to five percent of people with the disease have early onset, which appears when someone is in their 40s or 50s.  However, it is a progressive disease that gets worse over time.  In early stages, memory loss is mild, but with late-stage Alzheimer's individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment.  It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.  Patients with Alzheimer's live an average of eight years after their symptoms become noticeable to others.  However, survival can range from four to twenty years, depending on age and other health conditions.  (Source: www.alz.org)

ALZHEIMERS'S & THE BRAIN:  Changes in the brain begin long before the first signs of memory loss.  The brain has 100 billion nerve cells.  Each nerve cell connects with others to form communication networks.  Groups of nerve cells have special jobs, some of which are involved with learning, thinking, and remembering.  Others help with hearing and smell.  Brain cells operate like tiny factories.  They receive generate energy, supplies, construct equipment, and get rid of waste.  Cells also process and store information and communicate with other cells.  Researchers believe Alzheimer's disease prevents parts of a cell's factory from running well.  As damage spreads, cells lose their ability to do their jobs and eventually die, causing irreversible changes in the brain.  (Source: www.alz.org)

NEW TECHNOLOGY:  There is not a cure for Alzheimer's, but there are drugs and non-drug treatments available that can help with cognitive and behavioral symptoms.   Researchers are looking for new treatments to alter the course of the disease and improve patients' quality of life.  Now, researchers at UCLA have been developing this brain mapping project.  "This is a project born of frustration, basically. For many years, all of us who study brain structure and function have struggled with the fact that no two brains are the same — not in shape or size and certainly not in function," Dr. John Mazziotta of the International Consortium for Brain Mapping, based at the University of California, Los Angeles, was quoted as saying. "But how different they were and how to compare them was not known."  They have been collecting brain images from all sorts of people living in seven nations on four continents.  The brain atlas maps the brains in multiple dimensions.  It charts brain activity.  (Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077071/ns/health-alzheimers_disease/t/brain-atlas-seeks-define-normalcy/)

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