Gamma sabres slay
Alzheimer’s amyloid plaques
with disco lighting.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition that worsens over time leading to problems with short-term memory, mood swings, behavioural issues and ultimately loss of bodily functions and death. But could flashing LED lights be a method of helping to treat the disease?
Exposing laboratory mice to LED strips flickering at 40Hz for an hour reduced beta amyloid plaque levels in the visual cortex by half, reduced Tau protein abnormalities and enhanced gamma oscillations (brain waves) – all of which are characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease. Iaccarino et al, 2016.
Hannah Hall is a Senior Consultant at Pragma Consulting Ltd in London. Though she studied Russian and French at university, she has broad interests and enjoys listening to the RadioLab podcast where she heard about this research.