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Paper28 Feb 2025ScienceHealth & wellbeing

A decade of 40 Hz, reviewed by the lab that started it

Park and Tsai's PLOS Biology essay gathers the animal and human evidence for gamma sensory stimulation in one place.

Open at journals.plos.org ↗PLOS Biology · Jung M. Park and Li-Huei Tsai · 30 min

This open-access essay reviews ten years of GENUS — gamma entrainment using sensory stimulation — from the mouse work through to trials in people. In animals the reported effects include reduced amyloid and tau, less neuron and synapse loss, preserved memory, responses across neurons, microglia, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and blood vessels, and increased clearance via the glymphatic system.

On the human side it cites phase II results showing slowed brain atrophy and preserved white matter, work by the MIT spinout Cognito Therapeutics, a running phase III trial, and corroborating findings from groups in China, at Harvard and in Scotland. The authors are explicit that open questions remain about mechanism, particularly the microglial response.

Read it for the map, but note who drew it: this is a review by the laboratory that invented the technique, citing a company spun out of that laboratory. The primary trials are the thing to check.

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