New Therapy Helps Alzheimer’s Patients Understand Speech

A new technique for stimulating the brain improves the language skills of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a preliminary report of new research that appeared online last week in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

The technical is called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (or rTMS). The new treatment uses magnetic pulses to stimulate the activity of neurons in the brain. The rTMS treatment is not invasive. The experiment reported this week used rTMS in 25 minute treatments for four weeks  with patients with intermediate stages of Alzheimer’s disease. A control group received only two weeks of rTMS, and 2 weeks without the treatment. The rTMS treatments targeted the prefrontal lobe areas of the brain.

Participants were evaluated at the beginning of the study and again after 2 weeks, then after 4 weeks, and again a month after treatment ended. Testing assessed the participants’ memory, planning ability (also called “executive skills”), and language skills.

Patients who received the full, 4-week course of treatment had significant improvement in their ability to understand spoken language, and that improvement did not occur in the patients who received 2 weeks less treatment. Four weeks after the treatment ended, the beneficial effects on language comprehension were still observed, suggesting a high degree of effectiveness.

The treatment did not have any effect on memory or planning skills, nor did it help with any other language skills. The researchers say this demonstrates that, when applied to the prefrontal lobe, rTMS is specifically useful for language. They speculate that further refinement of the treatment may show ways the treatment can assist with other language skills.

The mechanism by which rTMS stimulates neuronal activity is not fully understood. The rhythmic stimulation may encourage the brain’s natural ability to reverse unhealthy patterns caused by disease. Whatever the mechanism, though, the results of this study demonstrate real promise both for therapies for Alzheimer’s and for further research into the mechanisms of the disease. Applying rTMS to other areas of the brain may prove to have therapeutic benefits, both for Alzheimer’s and for other brain disorders.