Posted by hbo on May 2, 2003, at 1:54:12
In reply to Re: Is Ambien a Benzodiazapine?, posted by DaveW on June 25, 2002, at 22:11:36
There's some interesting new research out of U of Utah regarding GABA promoting agents increasing the performance of aged monkeys on visual perception tests. The theory is, since GABA quiets neuronal activity, that this counters a tendency for aged brains toward neurons firing in response to stimuli that younger ones would not. So the old monkey's vision input system (eyes and so forth) are fine, but the multiple visual processing centers (how many do rhesus monkeys have? Humans have 30 or so) don't focus on visual stimuli appropriately because of the noise their aged neurons respond to. This result _may_ generalize to address other aging effects on the brain in monkeys, and perhaps humans!
Now, my father is 81, and has a fine intellect. He's starting to slip however. It doesn't look like Alzheimer's. Though I'm not a doctor, and I realize that a definitive diagnoses for the big "A" can only be done post-mortem :((, I still see no sign of some of the other symptoms, such as emotional or aggressive outbursts. Anyhow, I'm surely not going to suggest that he take a Valium and see if falls asleep or wakes up, but it's tempting!
The paper is in Science: (vol 300, p 812), which I don't have since I let my subscription lapse. But here's a link to the story in New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993686
poster:hbo
thread:102375
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030429/msgs/223784.html