Alzheimer's Archives

Aging neural stem cells struggle to take out the trash, say Stanford researchers

Protein aggregates in young neural stem cells seem to echo those seen in neurodegenerative disease-- but could they actually be helpful? As the cells age, they become less able to process the aggregates and their ability to activate is dampened.

Star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes implicated in brain’s aging process, Stanford study shows

A new study led by the late Ben Barres suggests that rogue astrocytes may be involved in memory loss in otherwise healthy older brains.

Get up and dance: A singer-songwriter explores how music can help dementia

A Stanford video highlights the impact of music on people with memory disorders.

Blood infusions from young donors for Alzheimer’s are safe — they may even work

It's not every day that early-stage research at Stanford's School of Medicine generates its own New Yorker cartoon. But a few years ago, news of a …

Artificial intelligence can help predict who will develop dementia, a new study finds

If you could find out that you were likely to develop Alzheimer's, would you want to know? Researchers from McGill University argue that patients and …

Late-night serendipity yields new insight Into Alzheimer’s disease

It was 2:30 on a winter morning several years ago at the National Institutes of Health outside of Washington, D.C. when Annelise Barron, PhD, a …

Genes that affect diseases and other traits may be scattered across genome

Biomedical researchers tend to envision genes for traits from height to Alzheimer's disease as being clustered in a limited number of pathways. Two assumptions have …

Inside the heads of men and women: A look at sex-based cognitive differences

I first began ruminating on what would eventually become my just-published Stanford Medicine magazine article, "Two Minds: The Cognitive Differences between Men and Women," in 2013, when I attended an …

Stanford researcher explores use of ketamine to treat severe mental illness

Obsessive-compulsive disorder was debilitating Geuris "Jerry" Rivas, a New York native. He would spend endless hours every day organizing his posters, comic books and videos. He …

Clinical guidance on genetic testing: A Q&A

Earlier this month, an FDA ruling gave 23andMe permission to market its personal genetic tests for 10 diseases, including Parkinson's and late-onset Alzheimer's. But with the increase in genetic …

Head injuries alter genes linked to serious brain disorders, new study shows

Traumatic brain injuries, like those caused by concussions, are common. But suffering even a mild brain injury boosts the likelihood of developing psychiatric or neurological …

You, too, can become a memory ace — and it will change your brain

Memory athletes -- individuals with the remarkable ability to, say, memorize the order of entire decks of cards in mere seconds -- invariably have a trick up their sleeve. …

Apparent inverse relationship between cancer and dementia disappears in new study

For decades, doctors suspected that dementia patients were less likely to get cancer than other people and, likewise, that cancer patients and survivors were less …

Caregivers experience high rates of anxiety, depression, study finds

Caring for a dying person is challenging and all-encompassing. And, not surprisingly, that takes a toll on caregivers, according to a new study. Researchers at …

New study hints at why infamous gene variant increases odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease

The causes of Alzheimer's disease remain obscure, although a new study provides a helpful clue. A long-reigning theory (to wit, that the accumulation of gummy protein …

Jekyll & Hyde tale unfolding within the human brain may explain neurodegenerative disease

Judging from the very terms used to designate brain research -- neuroscience, neurology, neurobiology -- you might figure nerve cells (or neurons, as brain scientists like …