Mental decline in normal aging: a review

Abstract

A considerable degree of mental decline is evident in most persons of advanced age. This article argues that this is due to a life-span deterioration, beginning in early adulthood, and that it is not an artifact of motor or mental slowness or educational disadvantage in the elderly; nor is it attributable to a cohort effect. The decline is seen not as natural but as a subclinical dementia that is produced by small pathological changes in the brain due to various medical/pathological conditions, some of which are treatable.