With research on Alzheimer’s drugs suffering recent setbacks, scientists are trying a new tack with the disease: deep brain stimulation, namely mild electrical shocks to the brain, according to the Associated Press.
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Ohio State University is doing a study of what AP called “brain pacemakers” for Alzheimer’s. Several dozen subjects with early-stage Alzheimer’s will participate in the study, which will entail them having holes made in their skulls for the implanted wires that will deliver an electrical shock to their brains.
Researchers are banking that electrical stimulation to the brain networks involved in memory and thought may keep those neural pathways open longer, AP reported. The idea is to circumvent the damage that dementia does to the brain cell’s connections.
Subjects in the study have a battery-powered generator near their collarbone that provides power to the electrodes that are in their brains, according to AP.
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