Some neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, have been linked to the abnormal accumulation of proteins in the brain, which can cause damage to neurons. This accumulation of proteins could potentially be linked to variations in the flow of CSF in specific brain regions.

Researchers at Leiden University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) recently developed a new approach to study the motion of CSF, which is based on the widely used imaging technique magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

This approach, outlined in a paper published in Nature Neuroscience, allowed them to uncover CSF mobility patterns linked with the build-up of amyloid protein in vessel walls, a condition known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA).