Good Vibrations

In addition to the telltale protein aggregates within the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, there’s a lesser known neurological correlate of the disease: a decrease in gamma brain wave activity – rhythmic electrical signals between 30 and 100Hz. If mice with a version of Alzheimer’s are stimulated with flickering lights, clicking sounds, or both, set to an equivalent frequency (40Hz), their memory and learning is reportedly better maintained and their burden of protein aggregates reduced. There have even been early trials in which patients receiving 40Hz audio and visual stimulation had seemingly beneficial responses. Now, research in mice indicates 40Hz tactile vibrations may offer similar benefits, reducing protein aggregates in the brain (right, compared with an untreated mouse, left) and improving motor coordination – an effect not seen with audio and visual forms of 40Hz stimulation. Whether such vibration therapy could improve brain and motor function in patients is the next question.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from work by Ho-Jun Suk, Nicole Buie, Guojie Xu and Arit Banerjee, and colleagues
• Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, May 2023