Duration: 7 minutes
Released: December 19, 2018
Instrumentation: fixed media (stereo) and video
a winner of the 2018 UGA Capturing Science Competition, Graduate Division:
https://guides.libs.uga.edu/capturingscience/gradwinners2018
Program Notes: A video+music art piece based on the recent Alzheimer’s research of the Picower Institute.
Director Li-Huei Tsai has done recent studies addressing Alzheimer’s disease via gamma rhythms, or the rate of neuron firings in the brain. For Alzheimer’s patients, these neurons fire irregularly while microglia (the brain’s “janitor cells”) do not properly wipe plaques that build up in the brain. In recent studies, researchers discovered that using LED light optogenetics at a regular firing rate may not only synchronize neural firing and encourage the janitor cells to resume cleaning but may also allow memories to resurface after they have been forgotten. Though this noninvasive treatment is not a cure for Alzheimer’s and much more research is still being conducted, it has broken promising ground in the field of learning and memory.
My grandfather passed away in 2013 with Alzheimer’s; in the decade leading up to this, my family experienced the gradual and painful degradation of what made him “himself”. gamma rhythm is designed to evoke this experience, beginning with an explosion of human noises (humming, gasping, sighs, etc., all recorded by members of my family), an eventual erosion of these experiences, and a retreat into the brain, where memories are blurred and hazy. The optogenetics are realized through images of sparks and electricity, uneven at first but gradually becoming more regular, stimulating neural activity. All sounds used at the end are reversed, a comment on the recall of memories.
I hope to draw awareness to this groundbreaking research through an artistic lens, reaching the many families of the 1 in 3 who will die from Alzheimer’s or age-related dementia.
Source Videos:
• Home movie: 10056: Visit to California, ca. the 1920s (from archive.org’s Prelinger Archives)
• The Human Brain, DK Publishing UK: Neurotransmitter Synapse 3D Animation
• Deep-Tissue Imaging Techniques by UNC neuroscientist Garret Stuber, PhD
For more information on the Picower Institute: http://tsailaboratory.mit.edu/researc…