Twins study indicates environmental factors significant in Alzheimer’s pathology

Twins study indicates environmental factors significant in Alzheimer's pathology
Cerebral autopsy specimen of a patient diagosed having Alzheimer Disease. In the HE stain numerous plaque formations within the neuropil background are visible. Credit: Jensflorian/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The question of genetic vs environmental influences plays a major role in research into brain aging, with researchers from UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Healthy Brain Aging (CHeBA) revealing new insights into one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease—amyloid plaques—by looking at the brains of identical and non-identical twins.

The world first study, led by Dr. Rebecca Koncz and published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, used a…

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