Summary: A new study may provide key insights into the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers report people with higher levels of amyloid beta showed less activity in brain areas associated with working memory when engaged in cognitively demanding tasks.

Source: UT Dallas.

Slightly elevated beta-amyloid levels in the brain are associated with increased activity in certain brain regions, according to a new study from the Center for Vital Longevity (CVL) at The University of Texas at Dallas.

But that increase in activity might not be such a positive thing. The results indicate that the brains of these individuals may be working harder or recruiting more cognitive resources to complete tasks than those with lower levels of beta-amyloid, the main component of amyloid plaques, the study authors said.

The new research, published in the journal NeuroImage, offers a window into when these increasing levels of beta-amyloid, widely known as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, might reach tipping points in the brain when regions crucial to memory begin behaving differently. Such points might foreshadow important milestones in the disease process.