The aging process involves changes in neurotransmission at different levels. The purpose of this book is to help define the state-of-the-art of the field and to give directives for future research on the aging brain. Following topics are presented: the comparison of normal and pathological aging at the anatomical and neurochemical level; the knowledge of the responses of the aging brain to drug treatment or environmental stress; the neuro/immune and neuro/endocrine setting during aging; and the definition of therapeutical approaches in normal aging. This book will interest physicians and pathologists as well as neurophysiologists.

Inhalt

Functional Morphology and Cerebral Metabolism During Normal and Pathological Aging.- Functional morphology of neurons during normal and pathological ageing.- Functional morphology during normal and pathological ageing with emphasis on peptidergic transmission.- P.E.T. study of human brain metabolism in aging and dementia.- An experimental approach to the study of the functional derangement which follows aging of the brain and dementia.- Alzheimer's disease causes metabolic uncoupling of associative brain regions beyond that seen in the healthy elderly.- Neurochemical, Neuroendocrine and Molecular Changes During Aging in Animals and in Man.- Neurotransmitters, genetics and aging.- Neuroendocrine aspects of aging.- The neuronotrophic hypothesis of the aging brain.- Example of age related changes of transducing mechanisms and of cerebral circuits.- Changes in calcium homeostasis during aging.- Dietary and neuroendocrine modulation of age related changes in dopaminergic action during aging.- Dopaminergic system in the aged brain: evidence for a selective loss of D-1 but not D-2 receptors.- Neurotransmitter changes in human brain during ageing.- The influence of age on neurotransmitters in the human brain.- Normal Versus Pathological Aging in Man:.- Senile dementias: an overview.- Growing points of the neurobiology of Alzheimer's disease.- The Alzheimer tangle and aging.- New perspectives in Parkinson's disease.- Guidelines of the care of the aged patients.- Subjective and objective health in aging: problems of assessment.- Drug development in geriatrics.