Cognitive function improved by intranasal insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes - Medical News Today

"Previous studies had suggested that augmenting cerebral insulin may enhance cognitive function," says Novak, an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Intranasal administration delivers insulin directly to the brain, bypassing the blood-brain barrier and reaching receptors in multiple brain regions within minutes after administration.
In this pilot study, the authors tested whether similar effects would be observed in patients with diabetes. Fifteen patients with diabetes and 14 healthy older adults, average age 62, were administered a single 40-unit dose of insulin or saline in a randomized order on two subsequent days. Measurements of brain function were then made using regional perfusion and vasodilatation with 3 Tesla MRI and neuropsychological evaluation of learning and memory.
"We observed in both the healthy subjects and the patients with diabetes that there was an improvement in both verbal learning and visual-spatial learning and memory after they received the insulin," explains Novak. Through imaging tests, the investigators also learned that these improvements were dependent on the brain's vascular function.

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