Maryland, USA: A simple study has found that people with mild Alzheimer’s or a similar disease may have a weaker electrical activity than others if a brain EEG (electroencephalogram) is taken. These are called gamma waves.
Thus weak electrical signals point to aging as well as brain and acquired decline. This medical indication can open new doors for early diagnosis and treatment of the disease and this research has been published in eLife.
Murthy Dinawahi of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore says it is very difficult to diagnose Alzheimer’s in advance, while a painless, simple and reliable test was lacking. Murthy is currently conducting research in Maryland.
Murthy and his colleagues have done some experiments on rats. These mice suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, which showed that even before the disease, the gamma activity in their brains was found to be weakening. He then began researching 250 elderly people and took their brain EEGs. It was then compared to 12 people with moderate to severe mental illness, five of whom had Alzheimer’s disease. Their EEG was also compared to that of healthy people.
In this experiment, EEG was carefully considered and the eye movements of the participants were also noted. The results showed that people with mild Alzheimer’s disease had weaker gamma waves, while healthy people of the same age did not.
Thus, we can confidently say that there is a strong link between gamma wave weakness and diseases such as Alzheimer’s in EEG.