The sixth volume of the Handbook is devoted to topics related to aging and dementia. The volume is introduced by two chapters dealing with age-related cognitive and neurobiological alterations in animals, including a detailed review of data obtained with transgenic and knockout technology. The next chapter reviews the cognitive changes associated with normal aging. The gamut of symptoms that occur in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are then described and analyzed, they include effects on attention, language, memory, non-verbal functions with emphasis on spatial abilities, olfaction and the motor system. The discussion of dementia syndromes is presented in two sections. The first concerns AD, which is discussed from the points of view of epidemiology, neuropathology and neurochemistry and concludes with a review of current and future treatments. The other section deals with non-AD dementias including Fronto-temporal and Lewy body dementias and specific conditions such as Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, as well as HIV infection. The volume includes a review of brain imaging and cerebral metabolism findings in aging and dementia. The final chapters review the relations between culture and dementia and the special syndrome of severe dementia.
Author Information
Edited by Francois Boller, Professor of Neurology, George Washington University Medical School, Washington, DC, USA; Jordan H. Grafman, Director, Brain Injury Research, Head, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Shirley Ryan Ability Lab and Professor, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Clarkston, IL, USA
Preface. List of contributors. 1. Age-related cognitive and neurobiological alterations in animals (M. Dhenain). 2. Alzheimer's disease and transgenic mouse models (T. Gómez-Isla, M.C. Irizarry). 3. General and specific age-related influences on neuropsychological variables (T.A. Salthouse). 4. Attention in dementia of the Alzheimer's type (D.A. Balota, M. Faust). 5. Language in normal aging and age-related neurological disorders (A.E. Ramage, A.L. Holland). 6. Differential effects of aging and age-related neurological diseases on memory systems and subsystems (G. Dalla Barba, D. Rieu). 7. Spatial abilities in aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease (A. Cronin-Golomb, M. Amick). 8. Olfaction in neurodegenerative diseases (P. Liberini, S. Parola). 9. Motor function in neurodegenerative disease and aging (D.H. Romero, G.E. Stelmach). 10. Epidemiology of dementia (L. Fratiglioni, W.A. Rocca). 11. Pathological correlates of dementia (C. Duyckaerts, F. Boller). 12. Biomolecular correlates of dementia (S. Govoni, M. Racchi). 13. Treatment of dementia (M. Pippenger, J. Cummings). 14. Non-Alzheimer degenerative dementias (G. Binetti, F. Pasquier, S.F. Cappa). 15. Cognitive deficits and dementia in Parkinson's disease ((B. Pillon, F. Boller, R. Levy, B. Dubois). 16. Neuropsychological deficits in Huntington's disease: Implications for striatal function in cognition (D.P. Salmon, J.M. Hamilton, G.M. Peavy). 17. The neuropsychology of HIV infection (T. Sun, K. Marder, Y. Stern). 18. Brain imaging in normal aging and dementia (D. Perani, S.F. Cappa). 19. Cultural background as a risk factor for dementia (A. Castro-Caldas, M. Guerreiro). 20. Severe dementia and its evaluation: Scales for cognition, behavior and overall functioning (M. Verny, L. Hugonot-Diener, F. Boller). Subject index