Washington People: Beau Ances
Beau Ances, MD, PhD, is using the latest brain scanning techniques to better understand how long-term HIV infection impairs memory and other mental functions. He’s also applying his expertise in neuroimaging to Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative disorders.
Washington People: Kevin Black
Kevin Black’s family didn’t have any physicians in it. Well, one of his great-great-grandfathers had a medical license back in the late 1800s, but he had no formal training — and Black himself wasn’t planning on medical school. But during his first year of college, a teacher helped change his career plans.
Exercise may reduce Alzheimer’s disease brain changes
Walking, jogging and other forms of regular aerobic exercise may actually ward off the onset of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the brain, suggests newly published research from Washington University in St. Louis.
Brain’s ‘resting’ network offers powerful new method for early Alzheimer’s diagnosis
Image courtesy of Cindy LustigParts of the brain involved in a “resting network” show large differences between young adults, older adults, and people with Alzheimer’s disease.Researchers tracking the ebb and flow of cognitive function in the human brain have discovered surprising differences in the ability of younger and older adults to shut down a brain network normally active during periods of passive daydreaming. The differences, which are especially pronounced in people with dementia, may provide a clear and powerful new method for diagnosing individuals in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.