Vascular dementia (VaD) is dementia caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain, typically a series of minor strokes, leading to worsening cognitive abilities, the decline occurring step by step. The term refers to a syndrome consisting of a complex interaction of cerebrovascular disease and risk factors that lead to changes in brain structures due to strokes and lesions, resulting in changes in cognition. The temporal relationship between a stroke and cognitive deficits is needed to make the diagnosis.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). It conducts and funds research on brain and nervous system disorders and has a budget of just over US$2.03 billion. The mission of NINDS is "to reduce the burden of neurological disease—a burden borne by every age group, every segment of society, and people all over the world". NINDS has established two major branches for research: an extramural branch that funds studies outside the NIH, and an intramural branch that funds research inside the NIH. Most of NINDS' budget goes to fund extramural research. NINDS' basic science research focuses on studies of the fundamental biology of the brain and nervous system, genetics, neurodegeneration, learning and memory, motor control, brain repair, and synapses. NINDS also funds clinical research related to diseases and disorders of the brain and nervous system, e.g. AIDS, Alzheimer disease, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.
Cerebrovascular disease includes a variety of medical conditions that affect the blood vessels of the brain and the cerebral circulation. Arteries supplying oxygen and nutrients to the brain are often damaged or deformed in these disorders. The most common presentation of cerebrovascular disease is an ischemic stroke or mini-stroke and sometimes a hemorrhagic stroke. Hypertension is the most important contributing risk factor for stroke and cerebrovascular diseases as it can change the structure of blood vessels and result in atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis narrows blood vessels in the brain, resulting in decreased cerebral perfusion. Other risk factors that contribute to stroke include smoking and diabetes. Narrowed cerebral arteries can lead to ischemic stroke, but continually elevated blood pressure can also cause tearing of vessels, leading to a hemorrhagic stroke.
Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), is a form of angiopathy in which amyloid beta peptide deposits in the walls of small to medium blood vessels of the central nervous system and meninges. The term congophilic is sometimes used because the presence of the abnormal aggregations of amyloid can be demonstrated by microscopic examination of brain tissue after staining with Congo red. The amyloid material is only found in the brain and as such the disease is not related to other forms of amyloidosis.
Carotid artery stenosis is a narrowing or constriction of any part of the carotid arteries, usually caused by atherosclerosis.
Memory disorders are the result of damage to neuroanatomical structures that hinders the storage, retention and recollection of memories. Memory disorders can be progressive, including Alzheimer's disease, or they can be immediate including disorders resulting from head injury.
An aging-associated disease is a disease that is most often seen with increasing frequency with increasing senescence. Essentially, aging-associated diseases are complications arising from senescence. Age-associated diseases are to be distinguished from the aging process itself because all adult animals age, save for a few rare exceptions, but not all adult animals experience all age-associated diseases. Aging-associated diseases do not refer to age-specific diseases, such as the childhood diseases chicken pox and measles. "Aging-associated disease" is used here to mean "diseases of the elderly". Nor should aging-associated diseases be confused with accelerated aging diseases, all of which are genetic disorders.
Steven T. DeKosky is the Aerts-Cosper Professor of Alzheimer's Research at the University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine, deputy director of UF’s Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute (MBI) and associate director of the 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
John Quinn Trojanowski, M.D., Ph.D. is an academic research neuroscientist specializing in neurodegeneration. He and his partner, Virginia Man-Yee Lee, MBA, Ph.D., are noted for identifying the roles of three proteins in neurodegenerative diseases: tau in Alzheimer's disease, alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's disease, and TDP-43 in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal degeneration.
The Center for Cerebrovascular Research at the University of California, San Francisco is a collective of faculty and staff investigating matters related to cerebral circulation, particularly cerebrovascular disease resulting from narrowing of major blood vessels in the brain and vascular malformation of the brain. While research offices are located on Parnassus campus, San Francisco General Hospital hosts the center's laboratories and facilities. The center coordinates with additional faculty in various fields of neuroscience and vascular biology. Sponsors include the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the UCSF departments of Anesthesia, Neurological Surgery and Neurology.
Samuel E. Gandy, M.D., Ph.D. is a neurologist, cell biologist, Alzheimer's Disease (AD) researcher and expert in the metabolism of the sticky substance called amyloid that clogs the brain in patients with Altzhimers. His team discovered the first drugs that could lower the formation of amyloid.
Anne Buckingham Young is an American physician and neuroscientist who has made major contributions to the study of neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on movement disorders like Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease. Young completed her undergraduate studies at Vassar College and earned a dual MD/PhD from Johns Hopkins Medical School. She has held faculty positions at University of Michigan and Harvard University. She became the first female chief of service at Massachusetts General Hospital when she was appointed Chief of Neurology in 1991. She retired from this role and from clinical service in 2012. She is a member of many academic societies and has won numerous awards. Young is also the only person to have been president of both the international Society for Neuroscience and the American Neurological Association.
Monique Maria Bernadette Breteler is a Dutch neuroepidemiologist. She is Director of Population Health Sciences at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Professor of Population Health Sciences at the University of Bonn, and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. She has been a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2015.
Patricia A. Grady is an American neuroscientist internationally recognized for her research on stroke, which specializes in cerebral blood flow, metabolism, and function. She is director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Grady was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1999 and is a member of several scientific organizations, including the Society for Neuroscience and the American Academy of Nursing. She is a fellow of the American Stroke Association and the American Neurological Association.
Vladimir Hachinski is a Canadian clinical neuroscientist and researcher based at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University. He is also a Senior Scientist at London's Robarts Research Institute.His research pertains in the greatest part to stroke and dementia, the interactions between them and their joint prevention. He and John W. Norris helped to establish the world's first successful stroke unit at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, and, by extension, helped cement stroke units as the standard of care for stroke patients. He discovered that the control of the heart by the brain is asymmetric, the fight/flight (sympathetic) response being controlled by the right hemisphere and the rest and digest (parasympathetic) response being controlled by the left hemisphere and damage to one key component can lead to heart irregularities and sudden death. This discovery has added fundamental knowledge to how the brain controls the heart and blood pressure and lays the foundation for helping prevent sudden death.
Geriatric psychology is a subfield of psychology that specializes in the mental and physical health of individuals in the later stages of life. These specialized psychologists study a variety of psychological abilities that deplete as aging occurs such as memory, learning capabilities, and coordination. Geriatric psychologists work with elderly clients to conduct the diagnosis, study, and treatment of certain mental illnesses in a variety of workplace settings. Common areas of practice include loneliness in old age, depression, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and Parkinson's disease.
Audrey Shields Penn is an American neurologist and emeritus professor. Her major area of research was in the biochemistry of muscle weakness in myasthenia gravis. Penn was elected President of the American Neurological Association in 1994. She was deputy director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and is the first African-American woman to serve as an (acting) director of an Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Robert A. Stern is professor of neurology, neurosurgery, anatomy, and neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine, where he is also director of clinical research for the BU Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center. From 2010 to 2019, he was the director of the Clinical Core of the BU Alzheimer's Disease Center.
Jennifer J. Manly is an American neuropsychologist. She is a Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurology at Columbia University's G.H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease.
Tatjana Rundek is an American neurologist and epidemiologist. She is the Director of the Clinical Translational Research Division, Vice Chair of the Clinical Translational Research Neurology, and Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory in Aging at the University of Miami's Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.
