Brain: General Enhancement

Transcranial infrared laser stimulation produces beneficial cognitive and emotional effects in humans. Transcranial laser stimulation could be used as a non-invasive and efficacious approach to increase brain functions such as those related to cognitive and emotional dimensions. Transcranial infrared laser stimulation has also been proven to be safe and successful at improving neurological outcome in humans in controlled clinical trials of stroke. This innovative approach could lead to the development of non-invasive, performance-enhancing interventions in healthy humans and in those in need of neuropsychological rehabilitation.

Treating cognitive impairment with transcranial low level laser therapy. Reaction time in a sustained-attention psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) was significantly improved in the treated vs. placebo control groups:

• Raising neurometabolic energy levels that improve cerebral hemodynamics and cognitive abilities
• Growing evidence that neurodegenerative damage and cognitive impairment during advanced aging is accelerated or triggered by a neuronal energy crisis generated by brain hypoperfusion
• Chronic brain hypoperfusion in the elderly can worsen in the presence of one or more vascular risk factors, including hypertension, cardiac disease, atherosclerosis and diabetes type 2
• Transcranial laser biostimulation of neuronal mitochondria may be a valuable tool in preventing or delaying age-related cognitive decline that can lead to dementia, including its two major subtypes, Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia
• The technology… is moving fast and may signal a new chapter in the treatment and prevention of neurocognitive disorders

Improving executive function using transcranial infrared laser stimulation. Laser improved performance in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. The active laser treatment group had a significantly higher overall accuracy than the placebo group… directed transcranially using an infrared laser diode targeting the lateral prefrontal cortex.

• Previous studies have shown increased cerebral metabolic energy production, oxygen consumption and blood flow in animals and humans following transcranial LLLT
• Executive function is an important aspect of cognition that is compromised in a number of neuropsychological disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and bipolar disorder, as well as by normal aging

Our results demonstrate that WCST performance can be improved with a single 8-minute LLLT session. We take this as further evidence in a growing body of evidence suggesting that LLLT may have neuropsychological applications, and see it as a first step toward investigating its efficacy in the treatment and prevention of conditions compromising executive function.

There is some evidence that all these seemingly diverse conditions can be beneficially affected by applying light to the head. There is even the possibility that PBM could be used for cognitive enhancement in normal healthy people. In this transcranial PBM (tPBM) application, near-infrared (NIR) light is often applied to the forehead because of the better penetration (no hair, longer wavelength).

Two Case Reports: 61 diodes (9 × 633 nm, 52 × 870 nm. Results: Seven years after closed-head TBI from a motor vehicle accident:

• Patient 1 began transcranial LED treatments. Pre-LED, her ability for sustained attention (computer work) lasted 20 min. After eight weekly LED treatments, her sustained attention time increased to 3 h. The patient performs nightly home treatments (5 years); if she stops treating for more than 2 weeks, she regresses
• Patient 2 had a history of closed-head trauma (sports/military, and recent fall), and magnetic resonance imaging showed frontoparietal atrophy.. on medical disability for 5 months. After 4 months of nightly LED treatments at home, medical disability discontinued; she returned to working full-time as an executive consultant with an international technology consulting firm. Neuropsychological testing after 9 months of transcranial LED indicated significant improvement (+1, +2SD) in executive function (inhibition, inhibition accuracy) and memory, as well as reduction in post-traumatic stress disorder. If she stops treating for more than 1 week, she regresses. At the time of this report, both patients are continuing treatment

• Laser therapy induces a persistent change in neurological function
• Results lasted for “years after treatment
• Induces a neuroregenerative change, based on the evidence of neurotrophin induction in animal models
• Improvement of neurological function revealed with serial functional neuroimaging