Cognitive Labs

Not Thebes or Memphis, but a mausoleum at Stanford

Cognitive Labs jumped to 548,000 visitors last month (july) an all-time high. To our knowledge, this makes us the largest brain training network. This is reflected in the charts on brain.com and our affiliates page. In case you're wondering, which you probably aren't, cognitivelabs.com has more traffic than brain.com by a significant margin, though brain.com is growing fast. In addition, we're on a host of partnering sites. So far, we've been in stealth mode like an F-22 raptor.

Dr. Ashford gave a well-regarded talk to 100+ Stanford alumni yesterday in Palo Alto on the issue of early Alzheimer's detection. The whole focus of the 'industry' is moving towards early identification - not just mild cognitive impairment but actually pre-impairment. This ties in well with other problems like aging. There is a growing realization that treating symptoms or cases where amyloid and tau proteins are already in place is not going to be the ultimate solution because by that point, irrevocable damage has occurred.

Detection and prevention needs to be earlier, simultaneously with concern for cardiopulmonary fitness, which should be in the 30's onward and really a lifelong practice.

Labels: 548000, amyloid, ashford, mausoleum, preDementia, Tau

Cognitive Labs connected with colleagues and also met some new experts at the 60th annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (in S.F.), which is focused on all parts of healthy aging. Dr. Ashford presented a paper, and I was fortunate to attend a breakfast meeting on screening (or monitoring of) cognitive impairment held by Eric Hall, CEO of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

Among the proactively-minded, essentially, there are two schools of thought:
(a) People around age 65 should be checked for potential memory loss and
(b) People starting around age 30 should concern themselves with proactive monitoring

As you might guess, these two positions, while different are not in opposition. Scientists increasingly recognize that a number of causal factors are involved in cognitive decline and they tend to begin early - an analogy is the contributory vectors for heart disease. As you monitor your heart rate, so you should monitor your brain.

Building up cognitive reserve is the name of the game, so that as you age-slight changes in capability are counterbalanced by reinforcing cognitive reserve built up over a lifetime of education and training. Some new research involving pilots conducted by Dr. Taylor at Stanford in a forthcoming publication suggests that cognitive reserve can overcome some serious inherited challenges-such as having 2 copies of the APOEe4 gene, which is associated with increased propensity for Alzheimer's. In the genes vs. environmental stimuli debate, stimulus can overcome heritability.

Case in point, look at the website 23andme, which tells the story of a champion long-jumper who succeeded despite having genes diametrically opposed to that normally associated with star athletes, who may have 1 but more usually 2 functioning copies of the ACTN3 gene.

All agreed that there is a vast opportunity to pursue research based on access to large populations, something the Internet is extraordinarily good at, in order to begin to track, monitor, and enhance cognitive ability as a prong in the overall effort to live longer healthier lives. To that end, we look forward to working with a global collection of scientists and colleagues who can help us assess the data to find the meaningful patterns, which in turn can hone our efforts. The methodology may be cross-disciplinary - Dr. Shankle is working with a NASA planetary scientist in evaluating his information, and the irony is that the swarm of data points may hold some behavioral similarity to other patterns seen in nature, such as trace feedback from an interplanetary probe, ant colonies, or flight of geese, it was recognized during the breakfast. What algorithms are optimal for analysis? What is the best presentation? Our role is basically a technologist who is tasked to tie together these disparate links and advance the state of knowledge.

Labels: alzheimers, ashford, geron.org, nasa, shankle

Wes Ashford (M.D.,Ph.D.) gave testimony to the U.S. Congress yesterday in Washington. The topic he was asked to speak to was Alzheimer's Disease, in conjunction with the Alzheimer's Foundation of America. He advocated that Congress get actively involved in supporting screening for dementia, utilizing either the faster/more accurate computerized methods or the less desirable paper practices. He was scheduled to meet with some of Hillary Clinton's staff (among others). We'll pass on how it went and some details later today.

Labels: ashford, congress, screening

SAN FRANCISCO - Researchers at Stanford University have developed a potentially pathbreaking blood test that, according to preliminary studies, is able to identify patients with Alzheimer's disease -- an ailment that has been notoriously difficult to diagnose.

The test has also shown promise in predicting which patients with mild memory loss are at high risk of developing the dreaded syndrome, which kills 66,000 Americans each year and inflicts incalculable heartache on the families of its victims.

Scientists have been working for years without success to develop a simple way to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, a degenerative brain disease that saps memory, sows confusion and will eventually kill patients who may have lost the ability to speak, walk or swallow.

In a paper published Sunday in the online edition of the British journal Nature Medicine, a team of scientists led by Stanford neurology Professor Tony Wyss-Coray describe a unique method that can spot Alzheimer's patients by screening for a set of 18 chemical signals that consistently turn up in the blood of people suffering from the disease.

Tip from Wes Ashford

Labels: ashford, nature, stanford, wyss-coray