Deep Brain Stimulation With LIFUP for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Alzheimer's Disease (LIFUP)

United States, California UCLA Longevity Center Recruiting Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095 Contact: Anya Rosensteel 310-825-0545 arosensteel@mednet.ucla.edu Principal Investigator: Gary Small, MD

Participants will then be administered four successive LIFUP treatments while the participants are in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Sixty minutes following the administration, participants will undergo a second neuropsychological test. A final follow-up assessment will be administered at one week.

Recently there have been multiple reports that DBS of different locations within the brain may be effective in improving symptoms characteristic of dementia (e.g., Heschman et al., 2013).

For example, Laxton et al. (2010) performed DBS in the fornix/hypothalamus of six persons with AD in a phase I clinical trial. The investigators hypothesized that stimulation of the fornix would alter the activity of the medial temporal memory circuits, and thus delay and/or reverse memory loss.

After 6-12 months, the investigators noted improvement or slowing in the progression of AD in some of the research participants, as measured by two commonly-used assessments of global cognitive function.

In a recent literature review, Laxton et al. (2013) also described several additional studies demonstrating that DBS of the fornix or nucleus of Meynert or subthalamic nucleus influences the pathologic neurological circuits involved in AD.