Johns Hopkins Surgeons First to Implant Brain ‘Pacemaker’ for Alzheimer’s

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have 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 U.S. The device provides deep brain stimulation and has been used in thousands of people with Parkinson’s disease. It is seen as a possible means of boosting memory and reversing cognitive decline.

The surgery is part of a federally funded, multicenter clinical trial marking a new direction in clinical research designed to slow or halt the disease, which steals from its mostly elderly victims of a lifetime of memories and the ability to perform simple daily tasks, Johns Hopkins researchers say. 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. For more information, click here to read the full release.