You don’t have to think much to pick up a pencil, open a door, or type this sentence.
This process is almost instantaneous. But during that split second, the brain sends signals along specialized nerves, or motor nerves, telling the receiving muscles what to do. This is also called contraction.
Each contraction produces a certain amount of force. Do you find yourself pulling doors open or banging on your keyboard?
However, in some cases, even simple tasks, the brain and related systems may not function properly.
One disease that affects the fundamental nature of the brain is Alzheimer’s disease, which develops over time and can occur slowly, sometimes for decades, before it is diagnosed.
Researchers at Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have discovered that impaired skeletal muscle health in an Alzheimer’s disease model is caused by impaired peripheral nerve function. It may be an early indicator that allows treatments and interventions to slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease before it becomes a psychiatric disorder or clinical diagnosis.
“It is very difficult to identify Alzheimer’s disease at the preclinical level, because we do not fully understand how Alzheimer’s disease develops before cognitive function declines,” said Dr. said lead researcher Joshua Drake, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology. on the project. “But what we can observe is how the body changes before diagnosis, and we can use that to identify people who may be at risk.”
The study was conducted in collaboration with the University of Arkansas, was recently published in the journal Function of the American Physiological Society, and was funded by the National Institutes of Health.