Sounds with a frequency of 40 hertz and lights that flicker at the same rate stimulate a pattern of brain activity known as gamma waves, which are associated with excitement or concentration and typically have a frequency of 40 hertz as well, though can range from 25 to 100 hertz. Exposing mice with signs of Alzheimer’s disease to an hour of such stimuli every day for a week somehow helped clear their brains of disease-related amyloid-β plaques, reduced levels of tau protein, and improved the animals’ performance on cognitive tasks, according to a study published yesterday (March 14) in Cell.
“That’s a very exciting finding, that it can actually affect cognition,” Tara Tracy, a neuroscientist at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging who did not participate in the research, tells Science News.
Previous research has demonstrated that disruption to gamma waves in the brain may contribute to the development ...
