Health

Defect in part of brain that daydreams linked to Alzheimer's

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 12, 2005

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The areas of the brain activated when young adults daydream are the same ones that fail in Alzheimer's patients, according to a paper in the Aug. 24 Journal of Neuroscience.

Researchers, using five different imaging techniques, found that Alzheimer's patients had the most problems in the posterior cingulate, retrosplenial and lateral parietal cortex. Authors of the paper suggest that these data may lead to a new theory of what causes this disease.

"It may be the normal cognitive function of the brain that leads to Alzheimer's later in life," said Randy L. Buckner, PhD, lead author and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Washington University in St. Louis. "This was not a relationship we had even considered."

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/09/12/hlbf0912.htm.

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