from: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0502agingbrains02s.html

Chemical's level may sharpen aging brains
Paul Recer
Associated Press
May. 2, 2003 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Aging brains may be sharpened and, in effect, made young again briefly by increasing the levels of a neurochemical called GABA, a study in monkeys suggests.

Researchers at the University of Utah found that GABA appears to help extremely old Rhesus monkeys focus their vision and thinking processes by silencing the interfering static from other neurons.

GABA screens out the stray brain signals that may make thinking and seeing difficult in older brains, said Audie G. Leventhal, a professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

"It eliminates the garbage signals," said Leventhal, first author of the study in the today's issue of the journal Science.

Leventhal said that in old primates, both human and monkey, there is a decline in the levels of GABA, a chemical that inhibits neuron signals in the brain. Without enough of that control, he said, the brain is distracted and overwhelmed by stray signals, in the same way the ear is overwhelmed when trying to hear a whisper at a rock concert.

Without sufficient levels of GABA to drown out all of the background signals, Leventhal said, "then all of your higher brain functions go bad."

Dr. Bernard W. Agranoff, a neurochemist and professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, said the study showing the effect of GABA in aging brains is an important finding that should be researched further in humans.

"It doesn't automatically point toward a treatment, but it is an observation that needs to be followed up," said Agranoff, who was not involved in the research. "It is a quite interesting finding, and the data looks very good."

In the study, Leventhal and his co-authors measured the electrical activity of neurons in specific parts of the brains of both young and old Rhesus monkeys as the animals were exposed to light patterns flashed on a computer screen.

Earlier work had shown that in young monkeys some neurons fired only for horizontal patterns, while others responded only to vertical or to diagonal patterns. In older monkeys, however, the neurons fired almost randomly, suggesting the brain cells had a diminished ability to distinguish shapes and motions.

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