During a five-hour surgery last October at The Ohio State
University Wexner Medical Center, Kathy Sanford became the first
Alzheimer's patient in the United States to have a pacemaker
implanted in her brain. She is the first of up to 10 patients
who will be enrolled in an FDA-approved study at Ohio State's
Wexner Medical Center to determine if using a brain pacemaker
can improve cognitive and behavioral functioning in patients
with Alzheimer's disease. The study employs the use of deep
brain stimulation (DBS), the same technology used to
successfully treat about 100,000 patients worldwide with
movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. In the study,
researchers hope to determine whether DBS surgery can improve
function governed by the frontal lobe and neural networks
involved in cognition and behavior by stimulating certain areas
of the brain with a pacemaker. Dr. Douglas Scharre, neurologist
and director of the division of cognitive neurology, and Dr. Ali
Rezai, neurosurgeon and director of the neurosci