Nuns leave their brains to science

[Owlscrying]

Wilton, Conn. (AP) - Two decades ago, Sister Kathleen Treanor, a 93-year-old former school principal and 677 other members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame granted a young researcher's request to test them each year in order to track the progression of Alzheimer's disease and other age-related brain disorders.

The 61 surviving nuns recently completed their last round of intellectual and physical tests for the Nun Study, one of the world's most comprehensive neurological research projects.

One final sacrifice remains: When they die, their brains will be taken for further study, joining a collection of hundreds of other brains donated by the the nuns who died before them.

The nuns attribute the study's success to researcher Dr. David Snowdon, whose work includes findings that people who challenge themselves intellectually can apparently delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms.

He also has researched the levels of folic acid in the blood of deceased nuns with and without dementia; why nuns with positive attitudes and creative verbal skills tend to live longer.

Getting the nuns to donate their brains was critical because the only indisputable diagnosis of Alzheimer's comes from examining a patient's brain after death. Because the sisters had been teachers, they looked at this as a way to keep teaching even after they die."

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