Memory Loss in old age: Dementia

Question 1

What is dementia?

Answer 1

A collection of symptoms associated with impaired cognitive abilities and the ability to carry out day-to-day activities

Question 2

How prevalent is dementia in the UK?

Answer 2

around 85,000 people living with dementia (around 1 in 14 over the age of 65)

Question 3

How many people are expected to have dementia in UK by 2050?

Answer 3

2 million

Question 4

What are some symptoms of Alzheimers disease?

Answer 4

Neurodegenerative disease, progressive, irreversible deterioration in cognitive abilities and daily function, mostly appears after age of 60

Question 5

What are some individual differences that impact decline rate and symptom progression?

Answer 5

Genes, physical health, personality, emotional resilience, education, support

Question 6

What happens in the brain with atrophy?

Answer 6

Neuronal loss, reduction in grey and white matter volume

Question 7

In what way is neurotransmitter production and function impaired/

Answer 7

Synaptic dysfunction - altered communication between neurons
Lots of cell bodies in nucleus basalis of Meynert early marker (cell bodies involved in production of acetylcholine, medications that reduce dementia symptoms boost brains supply of acetylcholine)

Question 8

In people with dementia, abnormalities develop in the proteins required for what?

Answer 8

The maintenance and repair of neurons
Senile plaques: excess beta-amyloid protein
Neurofibrillary tangles: misformed tau protein

Question 9

Beta-amyloid deposition first occurs in what structures?

Answer 9

Posteriorcingulate cortex, precuneus, medial prefrontal cortex

Question 10

What are the 5 types of memory affected by Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 10

1. Episodic memory (STM + LTM)
2. Semantic memory
3. Working memory (flexibility of representations)
4. Spatial memory (can often get lost, happens common at start of development of symptoms)
5. Lexicon (word finding)

Question 11

What were two conclusions from Rusted and Sheppard (2002) tea making study?

Answer 11

Not that people don’t know information, just have difficulty accessing it
Cues in external environment help

Question 12

What type of genes are closely tied to familial or early-onset Alzheimers?

Answer 12

Deterministic genes (chromosomes 21 and 14)

Question 13

What type of genes are associated with a higher incidence of Alzheimers and linked to sporadic Alzheimers?

Answer 13

Risk genes (chromosome 19, polygenic risk)

Question 14

E3E3 is regarded as normal on chromosome 19. Which combinations lead to a risk for future Alzheimers?

Answer 14

E3E4 and E4E4

Question 15

hat are the modifiable risk factors for dementia in…
1. Early life
2. Mid life
3. Late life

Answer 15

1. Less education
2. Hypertension, obesity, hearing loss
3. Smoking, depression, physical inactivity, social isolation, diabetes