Originally published September 7 2005
Alzheimer's affects daydreaming part of the brain, study says
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests Alzheimer's disease affects the part of the brain young and healthy people use in their down time for activities like daydreaming.
The parts of the brain that young, healthy people use when daydreaming are the same areas that fail in people who have Alzheimer's disease.
And the way people use their brains could actually lead to Alzheimer's disease.
The relationship between daydreaming is revealed in a study, published in the latest Journal of Neuroscience, that could one day help in the prevention or diagnosis of the disease.
The study found Alzheimer's mostly affects the brain's "default state" regions, used when musing or daydreaming.
"We appear to use memory systems often in our default states," said lead researcher Randy Buckner, of Washington University in St Louis.
"This may help us to plan and solve problems.
But it may also have metabolic consequences."
Five different imaging techniques were used to study the brain activity of 764 volunteers, including some with Alzheimer's, some close to dementia and healthy people.
When people are concentrating on a task such as reading, talking or solving problems, the brain uses one set of regions, but during down time it switches to a default mode.
"The regions of the brain we tend to use in our default state when we are young are very similar to the regions where plaques form in older people with Alzheimer's disease," Professor Buckner said.
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