A pair of early stage clinical studies testing the safety and efficacy of 40Hz sensory stimulation to treat Alzheimer’s disease has found that the potential therapy was well tolerated, produced no serious adverse effects and was associated with some significant neurological and behavioral benefits among a small cohort of participants.
“In these clinical studies we were pleased to see that volunteers did not experience any safety issues and used our experimental light and sound devices in their homes consistently,” said Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor in the The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and senior author of the paper describing the studies in PLOS ONE Dec. 1. “While we are also encouraged to see some significant positive effects on the brain and behavior, we are interpreting them cautiously given our study’s small sample size and brief duration. These results are not sufficient evidence of efficacy, but we believe they clearly support proceeding with more extensive study of 40Hz sensory stimulation as a potential non-invasive therapeutic for Alzheimer’s disease.”
