Dementia Research

In October, Dr Sarah Ryan talked to the Stockport Group about dementia research.

Dr Sarah Ryan began her talk with some biographical details about her career and how she became a Research Associate in the Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, specialising in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.

According to www.dementiastsistics.org  there are about 850,000 people suffering from dementia in the UK. One is more likely to get it as one gets older. Notable people with dementia include Terry Pratchet and Robbie Williams. Dementia is an umbrella term covering a number of different diseases: Alzheimer’s accounts for 50-75% of sufferers, Vascular Dementia 20-30%, Lewy Body Dementia 10-25% and Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) 10-15%.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s include memory problems, getting lost in familiar places, and difficulty recognising people and things. Vascular Dementia sufferers have problems with planning /organising, making decisions or solving problems. In Lewy Body Dementia patients may have movement difficulties, problems with attention/alertness, hallucinations and Sleep disturbance. Frontotemporal dementia is characterised by personality changes and difficulties in communicating. 

The differences are because different parts of the brain are affected. In Alzheimer’s one of the first parts of the brain to be affected is the hippocampus but it is a progressive condition that gradually destroys connections between cells in the brain. In Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) damage to the frontal lobe will show up on an MRI scan and the sufferer will suffer personality changes possibly becoming, rude or lazy or naughty. Some patients have FTD with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and this is usually fatal in 2 to 5 years. There are no good treatments for either FTD or MND.

Working at the microscopic level researchers in the laboratory investigate how the proteins are different in a Dementia brain from a normal one. This can only be done after death. Brains are sectioned and slides prepared. Sarah showed pictures of a section of brain with FTD and one without, showing TDP -43, the major disease protein FTD.

Sarah has a special interest in FTD caused by genetic mutation transcription, in particular C9orf72 found in frontal cortex brain tissue in sufferers. Human cells are grown in a dish and experiments carried out such as the effects of drug treatments.  Experiments can also be carried out on mice or Fruit flies.

Sarah supports Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) and a small fee for the talk was donated directly to ARUK.

Brains and Brain Modelling

In May Professor Mark Humphries from Manchester University

spoke to Greater Manchester Humanists on the subject of Brains and Brain Modelling.  With a gentle introduction to the topic, Mark introduced us to a multiply-appendaged soft toy called Ben.  Ben is a neuron, and one of 87 billion in any human brain.  Mark explained that Ben sends electric spikes to other neurons and that these control all bodily functions.  At the present time neuroscience has not mapped all these connections so we cannot understand the cause and effect of each spike.  Here lies the reason for brain modelling which in Mark’s view is one of the toughest jobs in the world as it focuses on understanding how the brain works.  Mark advised that through continued brain modelling all the spikes in a brain will have been mapped in 5 to 10 years!

Mark talked about one of the contributing figures in the early world of neuroscience - Walter Pitts who was born into a disadvantaged background.  He was bright and at the age of 12 he spent three days reading Principia Mathematica in a library.  He then wrote a letter to Bertrand Russell pointing out some mistakes in it.  He decided that he was interested in neuroscience and took on a role as a janitor at the University of Chicago.  Warren McCullock, an expert in the field of neuroscience at the University, recognised Walter’s talent and hired him.  They worked together and in 1943 provided the foundation for the first brain theories showing that the neuron was the basic logic unit of the brain.  Their model continues to be the standard reference in the field of neural networks.  

Mark went on to talk about some known’s.  Before any muscle action there is increased neuron activity or spikes and during the action there is less; the phenomena of blind sight where people who cannot consciously see have an awareness that would normally be attributable to sight, for example they can catch a ball; and the independent consciousness of the right and left sides of the brain and how they talk to each other and fill in gaps for the other side.  

Mark took a number of questions from the audience.  In reply to a question whether computers could be conscious he answered no because computers cannot have sensations.  Another question led Mark to talk about how learning associated with brain functions was being applied by Google and Apple in their artificial intelligence products or programmes.