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New Concepts in the Pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s Disease

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New Concepts in Alzheimer’s Disease

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Abstract

It is generally accepted that intellectual functioning decreases slowly from the third decade of life to the sixth and more abruptly thereafter. General intelligence, as evaluated by environmental criteria, appears to be maintained over a much greater period of adult life and to decline at a much slower rate than does mental ability as assessed in certain types of intelligence tests. There are exceptional individuals who retain remarkable intellectual powers throughout their lives. Their brains are presumably free of gross pathology, indeed plaques and tangles are not invariably present in the brains of all elderly individuals. Thus it is not mandatory for ageing to be associated with cognitive loss accompanied by neuropathological changes. In the opinion of Wisniewski and Merz (1984) measurable and visible variation from normal brain structure function is, by definition, pathological. If by reason of their number and location, these pathological changes elicit a clinical expression, they are defined as disease. Although gerontologists seem to avoid discussion of illness, Wisniewski and Merz (1984) argue that ‘normal aging’ may simply be a stage of pathology without clinical expression.

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Authors
  1. A. N. Davison
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Pharmacologie Biochimique, Centre de Recherche Pierre Fabre, Avenue Jean Moulin 17, 81100, Castres Cédex, France

    M. Briley

  2. Département de Pharmacologie, Centre Médical Universitaire, 1211, Geneva, Switzerland

    A. Kato

  3. Laboratoire de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie Fondamentales, Route de Narbonne 205, 31400, Toulouse, France

    M. Weber

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© 1986 The Editors and the Contributors

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Davison, A.N. (1986). New Concepts in the Pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s Disease. In: Briley, M., Kato, A., Weber, M. (eds) New Concepts in Alzheimer’s Disease. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08639-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08639-9_1

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-08641-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-08639-9

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