The document discusses brain changes that occur with normal aging and how they differ from conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's disease. As people age, the brain shrinks and there are increases in issues like strokes, white matter lesions, and dementia. Alzheimer's accounts for 60% of dementia cases and involves plaques, tangles, and neurodegeneration in brain areas controlling thought, memory, and language. It progresses from mild memory loss to inability to communicate. While memory issues are common with aging, dementia and Alzheimer's are not normal parts of aging and involve greater cognitive decline beyond memory.

1. Brain Anomalies in old age
Ageing causes changes to the
brain size, vasculature, and
cognition. The brain shrinks with
increasing age and there are
changes at all levels from
molecules to morphology.
Incidence of stroke, white matter
lesions, and dementia also rise
with age, as does level of memory
impairment and there are
changes in levels of
neurotransmitters and hormones

2. Dementia
Although memory slides with age,
dementia is not part of normal
brain aging.
Progressive decline of
• Reasoning, judgement
• Memory• Most common in those
over 65

3. Alzheimer's Accounts for 60% of
Dementia
• Alzheimer's is a
neurodegenerative disorder,
that has some hereditary
association.
• Associated with plaques and
tangles in the brain
• Cause or effect?
Forgetting things

4. progressive disease beginning
with mild memory loss and
possibly leading to loss of the
ability to carry on a conversation
and respond to the
environment. Alzheimer's
disease involves parts of the
brain that control thought,
memory, and language
Alzheimer's

5. Alzheimer’s disease is not a
normal part of aging. Memory
problems are typically one of
the first warning signs of
Alzheimer’s disease and
related dementias.

6. Pathology of
Alzheimer's Disease

7. Neurofibrillary Tangles
Form as a result of mutated Tau
protein, causing disruption
of communication and eventual cell
destruction

8. The Characteristic Spread of
Alzheimer's
Learning and memory
(anterior temporal) lobes

9. The Characteristic Spread of
Alzheimer's
Thinking and planning severly
affected

10. The Characteristic Spread of
Alzheimer's
Speaking and
communication
(posterior temporal)

11. The Characteristic Spread
Sense of location and
surrounding environment

13. Treatment of Alzheimer's
Cholinesterase inhibitors (e.g.
Donepezil)
Memantine (Namenda) is an
NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate)
receptor antagonist that blocks
overstimulation of glutamate
receptors.

14. Vascular
dementia
Lewy body
dementia
Parkinson's
disease dementia
Frontotemporal
dementia
Not All Dementias Are Caused by
Alzheimer‘s Disease