We’re back on the theme of neurons and talking about how we can fix psychiatric and spectrum disorders through our work at xNeurals. This time we’ll be focusing on neurodegeneration.
Neurodegeneration is defined as, “the progressive atrophy and loss of function of neurons, which is present in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.”
So as we can very obviously tell from this, neurons are being lost calling this disease, specifically related to the brain. Through these series of posts, I believe it has become known that I am very passionate about Autism. Now, in a previous post, “Neuroplasticity” on our blog, I have mentioned that those with autism have an excess number of neurons causing the formation of too many connections.
To be exact, according to Spectrum News, “Children with autism show an average of [11] percent more neurons than typically developing individuals during early childhood”. However, “Adults with autism, by contrast, have roughly 17 percent fewer neurons than children with autism do…”, showing that “…the number of neurons declines over time, so that by adulthood, the brains of people with autism have [roughly 20 percent] fewer neurons in the amygdala than do those of controls.”
This is where the neurodegeneration comes into play. Below is pictured the scientific workings behind neurodegeneration for those of you who are interested.
How does this relate to xNeurals?
We are trying to make the brain more at an equilibrium, helping to account for neuronal loss and hyper activation of neurons. Autism is nature’s gift to humanity. Unfortunately, many in our world today lose sight of this due to difficulty in interaction with those on the spectrum. xNeurals will work on bridging this barrier, allowing for us to learn from these gifted individuals. Many are searching for an answer on how to cure Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and Parkinson’s; I have first-handedly seen how these neurodegenerative diseases have caused havoc on the individual themselves and their loved ones; it is truly heart-breaking to see. Combining therapy with the device, and working on neuroplasticity, we would work on seeing tangible changes to these neurodegenerative diseases, giving back the gift of memories, experiences, and love to these suffering individuals.
References
Castillo, X., Castro-Obregón, S., Gutiérrez-Becker, B., Gutiérrez-Ospina, G., Karalis, N., Khalil, A. A., Lopez-Noguerola, J. S., Rodríguez, L. L., Martínez-Martínez, E., Perez-Cruz, C., Pérez Velázquez, J., Piña, A. L., Rubio, K., García, H. P. S., Syeda, T., Vanoye-Carlo, A., Villringer, A., Winek, K., & Zille, M. (1AD, January 1). Re-thinking the Etiological framework OF NEURODEGENERATION. Frontiers. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https:// www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.00728/full.
FMRIB neurodegeneration group. Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. (n.d.). Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/research/neurodegeneration imaging.
In autism, brain’s emotion hub begins with too many cells. Spectrum. (2018, April 10). Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/autism-brains-emotion-hub begins-many-cells/.
Kern, J. K., Geier, D. A., Sykes, L. K., & Geier, M. R. (2013). Evidence of neurodegeneration in autism spectrum disorder. Translational Neurodegeneration, 2(1). https:// doi.org/10.1186/2047–9158–2–17
Matthew Tontonoz Wednesday, A. 30. (2017, August 30). Is neurodegenerative disease a kind of cancer? Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https:// www.mskcc.org/news/neurodegenerative-disease-kind-cancer.
Nature Publishing Group. (n.d.). Neurodegeneration. Nature news. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.nature.com/subjects/neurodegeneration.
- Jayvanti Vanmanthai