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The more alcohol an individual drinks, the smaller his or her total brain volume, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Brain volume decreases with age at an estimated rate of 1.9 percent per decade, accompanied by an increase in white matter lesions, according to background information in the article. Lower brain volumes and larger white matter lesions also occur with the progression of dementia and problems with thinking, learning and memory. Moderate alcohol consumption has been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease; because the brain receives blood from this system, researchers have hypothesized that small amounts of alcohol may also attenuate age-related declines in brain volume.

Carol Ann Paul, M.S., of Wellesley College, Mass., and colleagues studied 1,839 adults (average age 60) who were part of the Framingham Offspring Study, which began in 1971 and includes children of the original Framingham Heart Study participants and their spouses. Between 1999 and 2001, participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a health examination. They reported the number of alcoholic drinks they consumed per week, along with their age, sex, education, height, body mass index and Framingham Stroke Risk Profile (which calculates stroke risk based on age, sex, blood pressure and other factors).

Extended treatment with Alzheimer’s disease drugs can significantly slow the rate at which the disorder advances, and combination therapy with two different classes of drugs is even better at helping patients maintain their ability to perform daily activities. Results from the first long-term study of the real-world use of Alzheimer’s drugs, published by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in the July/September issue of Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, support a level of effectiveness that may not be immediately apparent to patients or their family members.

“There has been the impression that these drugs only work for some patients and for a limited amount of time,” says Alireza Atri, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Neurology, lead author of the current study. “One of the problems in judging these drugs has been that patients naturally continue to decline, which can make them think the drugs have stopped working. But our study, which has some unique strengths, indicates that treatment does have long-term benefit.”

Two types of medications have received FDA approval for Alzheimer’s treatment. Cholinesterase inhibitors have been available since the mid-1990s and act by inhibiting the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. The drug memantine, which received FDA approval in 2003, is the first of a second class of agents that modulate the actions of the amino acid glutamate and is often used in combination with cholinesterase inhibitors (CIs). 

Previous research has found that when vision is lost, a person’s senses of touch and hearing become enhanced. But exactly how this happens has been unclear.

Now a long-term study from the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) demonstrates that sudden and complete loss of vision leads to profound – but rapidly reversible—changes in the visual cortex. These findings, reported in the August 27 issue of the journal PLOS One, not only provide new insights into how the brain compensates for the loss of sight, but also suggest that the brain is more adaptable than originally thought.

“The brain’s ability to reorganize itself is much greater than previously believed,” explains senior author Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, Director of the Berenson-Allen Center and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS). “In our studies [in which a group of sighted study subjects were blindfolded for five days], we have shown that even in an adult, the normally developed visual system quickly becomes engaged to process touch in response to complete loss of sight. The speed and dynamic nature of the changes we observed suggest that rather than establishing new nerve connections – which would take a long time – the visual cortex is unveiling abilities that are normally concealed when sight is intact.”

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified two new techniques to detect the progression of Alzheimer’s disease earlier. By catching Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms are apparent, physicians can prescribe treatments to slow down the disease progression. In one study, researchers identified abnormal structural changes in the brains of seemingly normal elderly that indicated mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. In a second study, researchers detected changes in cells that may help predict the transition from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease. The studies were presented this week at the 2008 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease.

Christos Davatzikos, PhD, Professor of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Susan Resnick, PhD, of the National Institute on Aging and colleagues found brain deterioration in elderly adults who were classified as cognitively normal. They used a highly accurate measurement tool, based on MRI images from the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, to look at the MRI images of normal elderly and identify any remarkable structural changes. By comparing these images, researchers were able to identify subtle structural changes in the brain tissue of healthy elderly with no noticeable symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

“With the development of this technique, we hope clinicians will be able to detect structural brain changes that are typical of Alzheimer’s disease earlier, before individuals present cognitive decline, by measuring levels of brain deterioration,” said Dr. Davatzikos.