The National Public Radio report kindly submitted here to open discussion reports on the study lead author saying something that can fairly be summarized by the report title. The report goes on to discuss the methods of the study, noting "The discovery came from a team of scientists who studied human glioma tumors implanted in mouse brains. The scientists used a technique called optogenetics, which uses light to control brain cells, to increase the activity of cells near the tumors." So this wasn't a human study, and it wasn't an intervention of asking the mice to think more or less, or to think differently, but rather an intervention of stimulating certain brain cells.
As the NPR report points out, it's hardly likely that physicians can recommend that human patients reduce their brain activity to keep their gliomas from growing, but perhaps a treatment can be teased out of interrupting the signal that leads from neuron activity to glioma growth. I hope so. I have a close relative who list a fiancee to a glioma, and that kind of brain cancer is a very frightful disease.
As the NPR report points out, it's hardly likely that physicians can recommend that human patients reduce their brain activity to keep their gliomas from growing, but perhaps a treatment can be teased out of interrupting the signal that leads from neuron activity to glioma growth. I hope so. I have a close relative who list a fiancee to a glioma, and that kind of brain cancer is a very frightful disease.