14 DAY TRIAL // In what might be this week's most peculiar and downright shocking piece of news from the world of science, a team of researchers argue that a very specific type of brain tumors grow by feeding on people's thoughts.
What this means is that the more time a person housing one such tumor in their brain spends thinking about all sorts of things, be it a movie or what they want to eat for dinner, the bigger the abnormal tissue growth gets.
“This tumor is utilizing the core function of the brain, thinking, to promote its own growth,” explained Stanford University neurologist Michelle Monje in a recent interview, as cited by NPR.
The tumors grow best when close to active neurons
In a research paper published in the journal Cell this past Thursday, specialist Michelle Monje explains that these tumors that rely on a person's thoughts to grow are known as high-grade gliomas.
In a series of experiments carried out on mice, the Stanford University scientist and her team found that high-grade gliomas found in the brain of such rodents grew faster and bigger when the animals' neurons were hyperactive.
Specifically, they discovered that when they used light to activate brain cells in the proximity of the mice's high-grade gliomas, the tumors grew at a surprisingly rapid pace.
Apparently, this happened because the tumors hijacked the chemical signals employed by the brain to carry information and to protect itself by growing an insulating layer around nerve fibers.
Once hijacked, the tumors used the chemical signals to their advantage and grew larger and larger. More information meant more such chemical signals, which in turn meant bigger tumors.
A potential treatment for high-grade gliomas
Now that they know how high-grade gliomas grow in the brain, scientists hope that they will soon figure out a way to treat them. No, they aren't considering asking patients to just stop thinking.
Rather, they imagine finding a way to block the newly identified chemical pathways that the tumors rely on to develop. Restricting the activity of the brain cells in the proximity of high-grade gliomas might do the trick.
“This discovery has opened up a window into potential therapeutic interventions,” specialist Tracy Batchelor commented on the outcome of this investigation.