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Defeating dementia

Nature volume 431, pages 247–248 (2004)Cite this article

New Frontiers in Cognitive Aging

Edited by:
  • Roger A. Dixon,
  • Lars Bäckman &
  • Lars-Göran Nilsson
Oxford University Press: 2004. 362 pp. £49.95, $99.50 0198525699 | ISBN: 0-198-52569-9

Fortunately for those of us on the verge of entering the ‘fourth age’ (defined by Paul Baltes and Jacqui Smith as the age at which 50% of those who are alive at ages 50–60 years subsequently die), help may be on its way. There are, for example, efforts to define more accurately ‘minimal cognitive impairment’ and its transition, in many instances, to dementias of the Alzheimer type. In developed countries, the fourth age comes at about 80–85 years; this is when various behavioural and physiological compensatory mechanisms — what I have called ‘sageing’ — no longer work very well. But events that modulate the age of onset and rate of progression of senescent phenotypes can have their origins much earlier. A fuller understanding of cognitive ageing therefore requires a lifespan approach, as first appreciated by my colleagues in social gerontology.

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  1. emeritus director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, Washington, USA

    George M. Martin

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  1. George M. Martin
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Martin, G. Defeating dementia. Nature 431, 247–248 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/431247b

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