{"645089":{"#nid":"645089","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Of Mice and Megahertz: Qiliang He Wins Fellowship to Study Gamma Wave Stimulation for Reversing Age-Related Memory Damage ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIf mouse models of Alzheimer\u0026rsquo;s disease had some cognitive functions restored by researchers exposing them to lights and sounds triggering gamma brain waves, would the same results happen in human studies?\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.warrenalpertfoundation.org\/\u0022\u003EWarren Alpert Foundation\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;is going to fund School of Psychology postdoctoral fellow Qiliang He $200,000 a year for the next two years to find out.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHe, who is entering his fourth year at Georgia Tech, is the winner of an\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.warrenalpertfoundation.org\/awards\/\u0022\u003EWarren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Fellowship Award\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;to study how audiovisual stimulation modulating neural activity in the gamma range affects neural activity and cognitive function in humans.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The whole study is actually an adaptation of animal studies,\u0026rdquo; He says. \u0026ldquo;The mice were exposed to gamma stimulation for one hour a day for eight weeks. We want to see if this similar intervention can work in humans.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMouse models refers to mice that have been\u0026nbsp;genetically programmed to develop Alzheimer\u0026#39;s disease pathology. \u0026quot;They have been altered to overexpress amyloid (plaques)\u0026nbsp;and then develop other hallmarks of the disease like synaptic loss, brain atrophy, memory impairment, etc.,\u0026quot; He says.\u0026nbsp;His plans involve studying\u0026nbsp;people who show the kinds of cognitive and memory declines found in normally aging adults first, and then expanding to\u0026nbsp;conduct studies with Alzheimer\u0026rsquo;s patients. Because of the continuing pandemic, He hopes to start his in-person research in late summer.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn a 2019\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cell\/fulltext\/S0092-8674(19)30163-1\u0022\u003Estudy\u003C\/a\u003E, MIT researchers, along with scientists from the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and Emory University, found that light and sound stimulation targeting gamma waves reduce the buildup of amyloid plaques in the mice brains that modeled Alzheimer\u0026rsquo;s disease (AD) symptoms. Those plaques, or abnormal proteins, are what cause damage to brain grey matter. \u0026ldquo;Our observations demonstrate a non-invasive approach to elicit system-wide effects on AD-related pathology and improvements in cognition in an AD mouse model,\u0026rdquo; the authors wrote.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGamma brain waves include a broad range of frequencies, from 30hz to 120hz. The sweet spot for this study appears to be 40hz, He says. \u0026ldquo;The gamma modulation is associated with learning and memory. In the aged population, and in patients with Alzheimer\u0026rsquo;s, this gamma optimization is abnormal, or is disrupted compared to healthy controls.\u0026rdquo; When gamma waves are activated, separate areas of the brain act more like a group. \u0026ldquo;It connects different brain regions together. It\u0026rsquo;s like a coordinator, getting different brain regions to communicate.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe method to trigger those gamma waves, He explains, is deceptively simple: Subjects will view lights flashing and sounds turning on and off at 40 times per second (40hz.). He cites an earlier cohort study that followed a group of people who underwent the treatment for eight weeks, and it found no adverse effects due to the stimulation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to electroencephalograms (EEGs), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and computational modeling, He will also use virtual reality to test his subjects\u0026rsquo; spatial navigation ability. The loss of that ability is one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer\u0026rsquo;s, and of memory decline in an aging population, yet the mice in the MIT study showed rapid improvements after gamma wave treatment.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHe is a postdoctoral fellow in\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/maplab.gatech.edu\/people\/\u0022\u003EThackery Brown\u0026#39;s lab\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;in the School of Psychology and in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/faculty\/Annabelle-Singer\u0022\u003EAnnabelle Singer\u0026#39;s lab\u003C\/a\u003E in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. He names both Brown and Singer as his mentors. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/flickering-light-mobilizes-brain-chemistry-may-fight-alzheimers\u0022\u003ESinger\u0026#39;s lab co-led the 2019 study\u003C\/a\u003E which He\u0026#39;s work will build on.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/psychology.gatech.edu\/mark-wheeler\u0022\u003EMark Wheeler\u003C\/a\u003E, School of Psychology chair and professor, says after an internal Georgia Tech competition, He was put forth as the Institute\u0026#39;s sole nominee for the Alpert Fellowship, which according to its website, \u0026ldquo;supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity\u0026nbsp;who have an M.D. or Ph.D. degree (or both) and who have completed a minimum of three years\u0026nbsp;of a post-doctoral fellowship in the field of\u0026nbsp;neurosciences, and hold a post-doctoral research position at a United States medical school, research institute or academic hospital.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I felt very honored when I learned that my research proposal was selected as GT\u0026rsquo;s sole nominated project for the Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Award,\u0026rdquo; he says. \u0026ldquo;I know there are many talented and established postdocs in the GT Neuro community. My mentors, Dr. Thackery Brown and Dr. Annabelle Singer, played no small parts in it because I had very little grant proposal writing experience. I am deeply indebted to their advice on the conceptualization and refinement of this research proposal.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"School of Psychology postdoc Qiliang He is building on two mentors\u0027 research into gamma wave studies on mice \u2014 with work that will eventually include Alzheimer\u2019s patients "}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EQiliang He, a postdoctoral\u0026nbsp;researcher, is following the path blazed by his Georgia Tech mentors \u0026mdash; and will use his new Warren Alpert Foundation Scholar Award to target gamma brain wave stimulation to try to reverse the effects of aging.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"School of Psychology postdoc Qiliang He is building on two mentors\u0027 research into gamma wave studies on mice \u2014 with work that will eventually include Alzheimer\u2019s patients "}],"uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2021-03-08 16:42:33","changed_gmt":"2021-03-08 23:06:35","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2021-03-08T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2021-03-08T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"632027":{"id":"632027","type":"image","title":"Flickering light strip for Alzheimer\u0027s studies on mice","body":null,"created":"1580745499","gmt_created":"2020-02-03 15:58:19","changed":"1580745499","gmt_changed":"2020-02-03 15:58:19","alt":"","file":{"fid":"240473","name":"Alzheimers.flicker.strip_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Alzheimers.flicker.strip_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Alzheimers.flicker.strip_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2901877,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Alzheimers.flicker.strip_.jpg?itok=Pec0iwaN"}},"645090":{"id":"645090","type":"image","title":"Before (left) and after images of reduced amyloid plaques in mice brains from a 2019 study. 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