No, he's referring to the fact that some researchers have questioned the mainstream adoption of the amyloid/tau hypotheses -- that the plaques and/or tangles ar

No, he's referring to the fact that some researchers have questioned the mainstream adoption of the amyloid/tau hypotheses -- that the plaques and/or tangles are the cause of the dementia. It's mainstream, but it is not proven, and there have been some studies that cast at least a little doubt on them. So the OP isn't using an off-the-wall phrasing, it is very much a question of whether the plaques and tangles are the cause or the effect of some yet-to-be-established mechanism. There is no better phrasing. This makes it clear that the mechanism is still a matter of hypothesis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry_of_Alzheimer%27s_disease#Disease_mechanism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry_of_Alzheimer%27s_d... Anyway, the apparent success of the ultrasound does indeed seem to be evidence that the plaque/tangle hypotheses are correct in assuming these things to be causal and not merely correlated symptoms.