In a new study from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, researchers confirmed the link between type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
They found that chronic high blood sugar impairs working memory performance and alters fundamental aspects of working memory networks.
Diabetes is a major risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease, but it is not clear why.
In the study, the researchers found that two parts of the brain that are central to forming and retrieving memories—the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex—were over-connected.
When it came time to remember the correct information and complete a task, these two parts of the brain—which are affected early in Alzheimer’s progression—were over-communicating with each other, sparking errors.
The team showed that a central feature of diabetes, high blood sugar, impairs neural activity in ways that are similar to what is observed in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease models.
This is the first evidence showing neural activity changes due to high blood sugar overlap with what is observed in Alzheimer’s systems.
The team says as the number of Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses rapidly rises and the incidence of diabetes and pre-diabetes has accelerated, it’s crucial that we understand what connects these two disorders.
This finding not only provides novel information about brain activity in the high blood sugar model, it also provides an additional important measure that can be used for continuing research.
If you care about Alzheimer’s disease, please read studies about to reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease, avoid this food nutrient and findings of new depression drug may help treat Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about Alzheimer’s disease prevention and treatment, please see recent studies about a new way to predict Alzheimer’s disease-like memory loss before it strikes and results showing that diet high in this nutrient may help fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
The study is published in Communications Biology. One author of the study is James Hyman.
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