Alzheimer's Dementia Essay

Alzheimer’s dementia is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by several brain abnormalities that are selective and only affect neurons in specific regions of the brain. This disease is characterized by a progressive decrease in neuronal activity and neuronal survival. Historically, researchers have used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines to scan patients with Alzheimer’s disease and the unaffected old adults and then use supercomputers to create color-coded maps which revealed the brain abnormalities. The abnormalities evident showed a degenerative sequence of Alzheimer’s disease using brain mapping. These brain maps showed a wave of gray matter loss that correlated with a progressive decline in cognitive functioning - a key feature of this disease. After comparing the scans, Alzheimer’s patients showed to have lost
In normal cells, the structure of the neuron is stabilized when the protein tau binds to microtubules. These neurofibrillary tangles are presumably formed through the hyperphosphorylation of tau. The key component of these mentally deteriorative plaques are neurofibrillary tangles in the cell bodies and cell projections as well as A-beta amyloid found outside the cell (extracellularly). The Alzheimer’s disease affected brain regions also contain senile plaques. These plaques have extracellular deposits of amyloid (specifically A-beta amyloid) that are surrounded by dystrophic axons.
Parkinson’s disease which is one of the most common movement disorders, was first described in 1817 and affects up to 1 million people in the United States. This well understood movement disorder is caused by the deficiency of a single neurotransmitter, dopamine. It is characterized by tremors, increased muscular tone, mask like facial expressions, flexed posture, rigidity, hypokinesia (paucity), and bradykinesia (slowness of