Vagus nerve stimulation shows promise as a way to counter Alzheimer’s disease- and age-related memory loss

Keeping a tiny brain area called locus coeruleus functioning properly may stave off symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and keep the aging brain healthy

By: Elizabeth Riley, Cornell University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: March 26, 2026

Words: 1,130

Last Updated: 4 months, 1 week ago

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By Elizabeth Riley, Cornell University

Most people think of Alzheimer’s disease as an illness of aging. But in fact, the brain changes that characterize it begin much earlier – sometime around the third decade of life.

In the earliest of these changes, a tangled version of a protein called tau starts building up in a tiny region deep in the brain involved in sleep, attention and alertness, called the locus coeruleus. …

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