A caregiver puts a hand over the hand of an older patient.
Alzheimer’s disease, a deadly brain disease that can cause loss of memory and mobility, affects millions of lives daily.
Nearly seven million Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and about 11 million in the U.S. act as caregivers for people with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.
June marks Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, and June 20, the summer solstice, saw a nationwide fundraising effort to counter Alzheimer’s and similar diseases, known as The Longest Day. Virginia Tech researchers are engaged in research meant to advance treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and assist caregivers of loved ones with dementia.
The power of music
“Music is so powerful, it overrides so many things,” said Jo Culligan, an instructor with the Department of Human Development and Family Science in the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Culligan has explored the benefits of music therapy for dementia patients and their caregivers.
A study that surveyed caregivers and their charges through a series of weekly community choir rehearsals showed that listening to music and singing boosted the well-being of choir participants.
At the beginning of rehearsals, some caregivers and people with dementia reported having negative feelings. But as time progressed, “they were getting into the routine and people were more happy once they arrived. We saw big changes,” Culligan said
“Where your musical memory is stored is an area that is not impacted by dementia. It can create opportunities for orientation and connection and increase communication,” Culligan said.
Modeling brains and manipulating molecules
Tim Jarome, a neuroscientist in Virginia Tech’s School of Animal Sciences within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has been working on a way to model Alzheimer’s disease using a pig’s brain, which has many more similarities to the human brain than that of a rodent.
“One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is cognitive impairments and memory loss, so we need to study the complicated tasks that pigs do,” Jarome said. “Pigs are very intelligent and can perform complicated tasks that are beyond the capabilities of rodents. If we develop this model, researchers in every state in the U.S. could use it because every state has at least one university with facilities to house pigs.”
Jarome also has collaborated on pioneering work that manipulates protein complexes in the brain to determine what role they may have in age-related cognitive decline. “It gives us a therapeutic target we can start to develop strategies around to stimulate and hopefully improve memory across the life span,” he said.
Better views inside the brain
Xiaoting Jia, an associate professor in Virginia Tech’s Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, uses tools to help neuroscientists study and solve brain diseases. Current electrical and imaging tools to diagnose brain disorders are limited in resolution, both time and spatial, making it difficult to study devastating neurological diseases. Jia has developed a fiber a little thicker than a strand of hair that can be used to probe the brain without harming it, allowing better imaging for studying brain disease.
Jia leads a research team that focuses on what relationship might exist between the buildup of plaque in the brain and the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms . In collaboration with faculty from the University of Virginia and Washington University in St. Louis, Jia is developing a new kind of scope that will allow imaging and observation of plaque buildup to analyze its relationship with memory loss. The team also will explore sending electrical pulses to re-establish blood flow and oxygenation to dead neurons and restore memory.
“Alzheimer’s is a devastating problem – I’ve seen firsthand how bad it could be,” Jia said. “It’s why it concerns me as an electrical engineer. I want to build tools and try to assist neuroscientists in solving brain problems.”
Mike Allen for Virginia Tech
