Day Dreaming Your Brain Away
Posted by Kim on August 28th, 2005 / Print This Post
Scientists are looking at every possible cause of Alzheimer’s Disease; some of the theories come across as sound and make sense and others….just don’t.
ST. LOUIS- Scientists who set out to explore changes in the brain as Alzheimer’s disease progresses got a surprise: a possible link between daydreaming and the degenerative brain disease that robs memory, language and thought.A new Washington University study shows the part of the brain used to daydream is the same where Alzheimer’s disease develops — in some people — later in life. It suggests the normal brain activity of daydreaming fuels the sequence of events leading to Alzheimer’s.
“The implication, albeit a speculative one, is that those activity patterns in young adults are the foothold onto which Alzheimer’s disease forms,” said lead researcher Randy Buckner, associate professor of psychology. He said they may lead to a life-long cascade that ends in Alzheimer’s disease in some people.
“It suggests a new hypothesis and opens an avenue in exploration,” Buckner said. “By no means is it definitive.”
The study appears in this week’s The Journal of Neuroscience.
Researchers at Washington University and the University of Pittsburgh used five imaging techniques to map the brains of 764 people. The subjects fell into three groups — people in their 20s, and older people with either early-stage dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease.
When they compared images, they found that parts of the brain involved in musing, daydreaming or recalling pleasant memories in young people were where evidence of Alzheimer’s disease appears.