The Damage That Alzheimers Disease Does To The Brain

Alzheimer's disease seems to damage - and ultimately kill - many of the nerve cells in the brain. In the process of damaging or killing these nerve cells, it damages or weakens the connections between them as well. It does not damage nerve cells and connections in every region of the brain, at least not at first. For example, it does not usually first affect the basic sensory or motor pathways of the brain, nor the lower centers that control breathing, heartbeat, chewing, swallowing, eating, or walking and other basic movements. So these will not be affected in a person with Alzheimer's disease in its early stages.

But the damage to nerve cell connections and nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease usually does start first in the regions of the brain involved in memory, in the inner parts of the temporal lobes. As a consequence, in the typical patient with Alzheimer's disease, it begins with memory problems. These memory problems look in some ways like those of pure amnesia. The Alzheimer's patient often has trouble learning or remembering anything new.

Usually, the beginning of Alzheimer's disease is almost imperceptible. But then - over the course of a few years - the memory loss becomes more severe. The person forgets his keys, not just once a day, but all the time. He cannot remember why he walked into a room every time he walks into a room. He is introduced to people and cannot remember them a few minutes later. He loses his way while trying to drive to someplace a little new and unfamiliar. There may be a tendency for memories that still are preserved - old memories - to substitute for new ones. So the person with Alzheimer's disease may endlessly repeat conversations and events from the past, or drive to a familiar but incorrect address instead of the new one.

As the disease gets worse, old memories also suffer. The loss of nerve cells and connections begins erasing knowledge of even very well learned things, such as the names of grandchildren, or knowledge of familiar streets and routes. These erasures of old information, combined with the problems learning anything new, may cause sufferers to get lost driving in an otherwise familiar location. Damage in the language regions of the brain frequently results in problems with finding the right words.

In addition to these memory problems, damage occurs in other parts of the brain in early Alzheimer's disease, which creates other kinds of problems. The frontal regions of the brain orchestrate our behaviors and help us regulate and prioritize mental activities and keep some behaviors in check while letting others surface. Damage in those frontal regions shows itself as alterations in behavior. As a result, the patient with Alzheimer's disease may not be able to resist gambling or other vices. They may make inappropriate comments - ones we may normally think, but not normally say out loud.

The frontal lobes are also regions of the brain that seem important in providing motivation and direction. Damage to these areas can cause a patient with Alzheimer's disease to become Somewhat apathetic and lose initiative. They will sit all day, uninterested and unmoving. The mind's ability to find information and to link it together may also be damaged in Alzheimer's disease. The Alzheimer's patient may "not be able to put 2 and 2 together." You may explain to them why they shouldn't leave the gas burners on, and they may tell you they know not to leave the burners on - but they do it anyway.


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