Recently, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine surgically
implanted a pacemaker-like device into the brain of a patient in
the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, the first such
operation in the United States. The device, which provides deep
brain stimulation and has been used in thousands of people with
Parkinson's disease, is seen as a possible means of boosting
memory and reversing cognitive decline. The surgery is part of a
federally-funded, multi-center clinical trial marking a new
direction in clinical research designed to slow or halt the
ravages of the disease. Instead of focusing on drug treatments,
many of which have failed in recent clinical trials, the
research focuses on the use of the low-voltage electrical
charges delivered directly to the brain. As part of a
preliminary safety study in 2010, the devices were implanted in
six Alzheimer's disease patients in Canada. Researchers found
that patients with mild forms of the disorder showed sustained
increases in glucose metabolism, an indicator of