Problems of early diagnosis and prevention of cognitive disorders

Kurmyshev Marat Vitalievich

As you know, the size of the human brain, its vascularization and cognitive functions change with age. Such processes occur at both the molecular and morphological levels. The volume of the brain and its weight decreases by about 5 % every 10 years, starting from the age of 40 and up to 70 years, with normal aging, myelin sheaths are damaged in 40 years. The frontal lobe (one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex) is most sensitive to white matter damage, but not all scientists are inclined to believe so. The results of the study, which compared the data of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain area of individuals aged 30 and 60 years, respectively, showed that the prefrontal cortex of the brain is most often affected, followed by the striatum, the temporal lobe of the cerebellar hemisphere, and the hippocampus. And the least affected is the occipital cortex. Structural changes in the brain appear long before the first clinical signs of cognitive impairment. The pathological accumulation of β-amyloid and tau protein in the brain occurs 10-20 years before the first symptoms of the disease appear. In this regard, it is important to develop methods for early diagnosis and prevention of cognitive impairments.

Keywords:Dementia, cognitive impairment, prevention, brain.