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Science 17 October 1997:
Vol. 278. no. 5337, pp. 412 - 419
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5337.412
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Articles

Life and Death of Neurons in the Aging Brain

John H. Morrison, * Patrick R. Hof

Neurodegenerative disorders are characterized by extensive neuron death that leads to functional decline, but the neurobiological correlates of functional decline in normal aging are less well defined. For decades, it has been a commonly held notion that widespread neuron death in the neocortex and hippocampus is an inevitable concomitant of brain aging, but recent quantitative studies suggest that neuron death is restricted in normal aging and unlikely to account for age-related impairment of neocortical and hippocampal functions. In this article, the qualitative and quantitative differences between aging and Alzheimer's disease with respect to neuron loss are discussed, and age-related changes in functional and biochemical attributes of hippocampal circuits that might mediate functional decline in the absence of neuron death are explored. When these data are viewed comprehensively, it appears that the primary neurobiological substrates for functional impairment in aging differ in important ways from those in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

J. H. Morrison is with the Neurobiology of Aging Laboratories, the Fishberg Research Center for Neurobiology, and the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA. P. R. Hof is with the Neurobiology of Aging Laboratories, the Fishberg Research Center for Neurobiology, the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development, and the Department of Ophthalmology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: morrison{at}cortex.neuro.mssm.edu

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