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A New Headset Aims to Treat Alzheimer’s With Light and Sound


An experimental device developed by Cognito Therapeutics seeks to slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients using light and sound.

Compared with the placebo group, those who got the Cognito stimulation showed a 77 percent slowing in functional decline as measured by a scale that assesses how well Alzheimer’s patients are able to carry out daily activities, such as eating, dressing, and getting around. Previously, they found that stimulating mice with light and sound at 40 hertz made them perform better on memory tasks and also reduced levels of amyloid —a protein that builds up and forms plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Christopher Weber, director of global science initiatives at the Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association, is encouraged by the safety of the Cognito device, but says the size of the study was too small to properly test efficacy.

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