Study suggests long-term light and sound therapy may help some Alzheimer’s patients
Recent research on sound therapy for Alzheimer’s disease is drawing attention after an MIT pilot study reported that daily 40 Hz light and sound stimulation may slow cognitive decline in some patients with mild Alzheimer’s.
What Is Sound Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease?
Sound therapy for Alzheimer’s is a noninvasive treatment that uses 40 Hz audiovisual stimulation, flashing lights paired with a clicking or beeping sound, to try to slow cognitive decline. The MIT approach is called GENUS, which stands for gamma entrainment using sensory stimuli.
The method aims to influence gamma-wave activity in the brain through daily exposure to precisely timed light and sound. MIT researchers have been testing whether daily 40 Hz stimulation can affect cognition and biomarkers in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease. A related nationwide clinical trial is being run by MIT spinoff company Cognito Therapeutics, according to MIT.
What Did the MIT 40 Hz Sound Therapy Study Find?
The MIT pilot study found that daily 40 Hz audiovisual stimulation over two years was safe and may slow cognitive decline in some patients with mild Alzheimer’s, according to findings published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
Five patients used the therapy daily for two years with no adverse events reported over the study period. Three participants with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease retained strong EEG entrainment and showed less decline on the Mini-Mental State Examination, Clinical Dementia Rating and Functional Assessment Scale compared with matched controls from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and the Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Study.
Who Benefited From the Sound Therapy Treatment?
The three volunteers who showed cognitive benefits were all women with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, according to MIT. The two other participants, both men with early-onset forms of the disease, did not exhibit significant benefits after two years.
Plasma samples were available for only two of the five participants, both with late-onset Alzheimer’s. Both showed reductions in the biomarker tau protein pTau217, at 47% and 19%. The study authors wrote that daily 40 Hz audiovisual stimulation over two years is safe, feasible and “may slow cognitive decline and biomarker progression, especially in late-onset AD patients.” The dataset is small but represents the longest-term test so far of the noninvasive method.
How Does Annabelle Singer’s Research on Light and Sound Therapy Compare?
Annabelle Singer, an associate professor and biomedical engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, is studying how flickering lights and sound at 40 Hz affect neural activity in Alzheimer’s patients. Her setup uses goggles that deliver flickering lights along with headphones that pipe in a fast-clicking, beeping sound, according to CNN.
“We are taking a really different approach to Alzheimer’s,” Singer told the outlet. “We’ve determined how neural activity that is essential for memory fails in Alzheimer’s disease. We’re then using that information to develop brain stimulation that could improve brain health.”
Singer said the goal is not to reverse existing memory impairment but to slow further cognitive decline.
What Other Research Supports 40 Hz Sensory Stimulation for Alzheimer’s?
Two early-stage clinical studies of 40 Hz sensory stimulation found the potential therapy was well tolerated with no notable adverse effects, according to the Alzheimer’s Research Association. A phase 1 trial included 43 participants, and a phase 2a trial gave GENUS devices to 15 people with early-stage Alzheimer’s to use at home for at least three months.
In the phase 2a trial, the treatment group showed greater connectivity between brain areas linked to cognition and visual processing than the control group, and performed better on a memory test that matched faces with names. Two markers tied to Alzheimer’s progression, reduced hippocampal volume and raised ventricle volume, worsened in control participants but did not change significantly in the treatment group. The site cautioned that with only a few individuals in each group, the results are hard to confirm.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
