A recent breakthrough in Dr. Robert Sutherland’s lab at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (located adjacent to the University of Lethbridge) has demonstrated the ability to re-grow brain cells that have been lost in the hippocampus, an area of the brain important for memory and finding our way in our environment.  In Sutherland’s experiments, the loss of cells in the brains of rats was caused by eliminating a hormone called corticosterone that is necessary for keeping alive certain brain cells in the hippocampus.  After these cells died, Sutherland and his students showed that the rats had memory problems that resemble dementia.

Through a combination of exercise, an enriched living environment, and a specific protein therapy, the rats, when tested on complicated exercise field, were proven to have fully recovered their memory, and showed re-growth of the damaged parts of the hippocampus.

Hence, with a program comprised of a specific protein therapy and a set of prescribed ‘exercises’, recovery from the brain injury was demonstrated.  This finding predicts that a two-pronged approach will be needed for persons to recover from the death of neurons related to diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease, or Alzheimer’s Disease:  (i) drug therapy, and (ii) behavioral task therapy.

Could serious games designed and proven to exercise specific aspects of brain function be a complimentary to Sutherland’s protein therapy?

A full version of the press release describing Sutherland’s findings are on available on the University of Lethbridge website: http://ccbn.uleth.ca/detail.php?record=55&page=1

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