The link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/health/alzheimers-memory.amp.html
This is direct quote from article: "Could people’s eyes and ears help fix the damage Alzheimer’s disease does to the brain? Just by looking at flashing light and listening to flickering sound?
A new study led by a prominent M.I.T. neuroscientist offers tantalizing promise. It found that when mice engineered to exhibit Alzheimer’s-like qualities were exposed to strobe lights and clicking sounds, important brain functions improved and toxic levels of Alzheimer’s-related proteins diminished.
What’s more, the rapid-fire soundtrack appeared to make mice better at cognitive and memory skills, like navigating mazes and recognizing objects". Exciting? I think so!
BY MIKE MCRAE
MARCH 15, 2019
Clumps of harmful proteins that interfere with brain functions have been partially cleared in mice using nothing but light and sound.Research led by MIT has found 40pps (pulsePerSecond) lights and a low pitched buzz can be used to recreate brain waves lost in the disease, which in turn remove plaque and improve cognitive function in mice engineered to display Alzheimer's-like behaviour.
It's a little like using light and sound to trigger their own brain waves to help fight the disease.
(This technique hasn't been clinically trialled in humans as yet, so it's too soon to get excited) Brain waves are known to work differently in humans and mice, but if replicated, these early results hint at a possible cheap and drug-free way to treat the common form of dementia.
I am going to keep an open mind about the study, because I would love the researcher's to find a cure.
"Tantalizing" promise could be a red flag warning, however. But I am sure the researcher's colleagues will be scrutinizing the study.
My first thoughts were similar to FF's. I think now that the release of adrenaline would increase cognitive function, just because of the body's well known "fight or flight" effects. But it would only help for a time, that adrenaline release leading to a "burn out" and causing stress damage, instead.
That is just my opinion, not at all expert.
I know I cannot be around any type of strobe lights, can't even watch such lights on a TV show.... it messes with my thinking.