Ethics

UPDATED: Memory Enhancement/Alzheimer's Treatment

By Adam Kolber

UPDATED: As Neil Levy notes in the comments, one ought to be particularly cautious about the claims made for this device.  See here.

The Daily Mail reports on an early-stage device that developers say may reverse symptoms of Alzheimer's.  Here's an excerpt:

The helmet is the creation of Dr Gordon Dougal, a director of Virulite, a medical research company based in County Durham.

It follows a study at the University of Sunderland which found infra-red light can reverse memory loss in mice.

Dr Dougal claims that only ten minutes under the hat a day is enough to have an effect.

"Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay - this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it," he said.

Low level infra-red red is thought to stimulate the growth of cells of all types of tissue and encourage their repair. It is able to penetrate the skin and even get through the skull. . . .

The study at Sunderland found that exposing middle-aged mice to infrared light for six minutes a day for ten days improved their performance in a three-dimensional maze. In the human trials, due to start this summer, the scientists will use levels of infra-red that occur naturally in sunlight.

I guess we shall see if this actually works.  The last bit of text above suggests that the device has an enhancement effect on mice (assuming that middle-aged mice are not thought memory deficient.) (Hat tip: boingboing.net)

Full post as published by Neuroethics and Law on January 27, 2008 (boomark / email).