Advanced imaging technology has helped scientists confirm that the destruction of brain synapses underlies the cognitive deficits experienced by patients with Alzheimer's disease. For many years, scientists have assumed that the loss of connections between brain cells caused Alzheimer's-related symptoms, including memory loss, but actual evidence of the role of synaptic loss had been limited to a small number of brain biopsies and post-mortem brain exams conducted on patients with moderate or advanced disease. However, the emergence of a positron emission tomography (PET) scanning technology has allowed researchers to observe the loss of synapses in living patients with even mild symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
from Healthy Aging News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/1Wm4UuN
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