How could one pursue these ideas?

"One strategy along the way towards developing treatments that normalize neuronal activity would be to identify how microtubules transmit and amplify electromagnetic current."

This could be done--first in the Petri dish, where one can isolate individual microtubules in order to understand how they respond to electromagnetic current, and then eventually in experimental animals, human subjects, and patients. The good thing about building a therapeutic model based on electromagnetic current is that you can use principles like constructive and destructive wave interference. In other words, you can apply electromagnetic fields that will cancel out other fields. You can in principle cancel out maladaptive thought patterns, and train neurons to stop generating such patterns.



Image # 12 - Microtubules

Moreover, since microtubules are both structurally plastic, as well being capable of long-term storage, then any functional adaptations that could be produced by such a treatment might be permanently encoded in the structure of the neuron. This means that this approach may lead to a long lasting treatment or even a cure for certain affective disorders and other neurological and psychiatric disorders.



Insert slide # 13 - Future Directions

The future directions would be to step up research at the sub-cellular level, as I’ve mentioned already, studies on individual microtubules and their conductive signaling properties. Next, we need more research at the clinical level measuring abnormal activity associated with mental disorders and associated co-morbidities, for example, alcoholism and drug abuse, along with investigations probing how these relate to microtubule signaling. Last, techniques to re-train impaired microtubule matrices to behave adaptively need to be developed.

Bio

Nancy Woolf, Ph.D., UCLA Dept. of Psych- Behavioral Neuroscience

Dr. Woolf’s research interests focus upon nanoscale structures in the Central nervous System and the participation of these structures in higher cognition. Particular interests include:

• Cytoskeletal abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease
• Microtubules and microtubule-associated proteins in learning and memory
• Microtubule-based models of cognition (information processing, attention, consciousness)
• Pharmacological strategies based on proteomics