What is meant by subcortical dementia?

Subcortical dementia is a clinical syndrome characterized by slowness of mental processing, forgetfulness, impaired cognition, apathy, and depression.

What is cortical and subcortical dementia?

Subcortical dementias are the different types of dementia caused by disorders affecting a part of the brain beneath the cerebral cortex. Often, those suffering from a subcortical dementia display difficulties with attention and concentration, and tend to have severe trouble with motor function.

Which dementia is subcortical?

Subcortical vascular dementia, also called Binswanger’s disease, is caused by widespread, microscopic areas of damage to the brain resulting from the thickening and narrowing (atherosclerosis) of arteries that supply blood to the subcortical areas of the brain.

What is the difference between cortical dementia and subcortical dementia?

Clinical reports suggest that subcortical syndromes (eg, Parkinson’s disease) involve less severe intellectual and memory dysfunction and lack the aphasia, agnosia, and apraxia typical of the cortical dementias (eg, dementia of the Alzheimer type).

What can cause subcortical dementia?

Common causes of frontal/subcortical dementia include vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, alcoholic dementia, dementia due to AIDS, and a number of movement disorders.

What are the subcortical areas of the brain?

Subcortical structures are a group of diverse neural formations deep within the brain which include the diencephalon, pituitary gland, limbic structures and the basal ganglia. They are involved in complex activities such as memory, emotion, pleasure and hormone production.

What is the difference between cortical and subcortical areas?

In humans, the cortex is where many of the higher-level functions take place (e.g. decision-making and language). ‘Subcortex’ means ‘beneath the cortex’. The subcortex is where we process more primitive functions (e.g. emotion processed in the amygdala).

What are the 4 types of dementia?

This guide will look at four different types of dementia: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Vascular Dementia (VaD), Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). You’ll notice that these types of dementia share similar symptoms, but there are differences in the number of cases, signs, and treatments for each.

What is subcortical affect?

Subcortical dementias includes those diseases which predominantly affects the basal ganglia along with features of cognitive decline. Diseases such as progressive supranuclear palsy, Huntington’s chorea and Parkinson’s disease are different in many features from the other cortical dementias like Alzheimer’s disease.

What is subcortical white matter in the brain?

The subcortical white matter makes up around half of the human brain volume. It is responsible for the interconnection of cortical and subcortical areas, participating in the constitution of the wide neural networks related to a host of motor, sensory, cognitive, and behavioral functions.

What are symptoms of cortical dementia?

Cortical Dementia. Cortical dementia is likely to result in dementia symptoms such as loss of memory, loss of the ability to recognize people, and difficulty recalling the right words for things or concepts.

What is the prognosis for dementia?

About prognosis: The ‘prognosis’ of Dementia usually refers to the likely outcome of Dementia. The prognosis of Dementia may include the duration of Dementia, chances of complications of Dementia, probable outcomes, prospects for recovery, recovery period for Dementia, survival rates, death rates, and other outcome possibilities in…

What is the life span of vascular dementia?

Because people with vascular dementia is linked to strokes, people affected often have other illnesses and may have worse general health. Research suggests that the average life expectancy is around four years. However, sudden or severe deterioration can happen when there is a further stroke.

What is the best treatment for vascular dementia?

There are some medications that may help to manage some symptoms of vascular dementia. These medications may include drugs that can help with cognitive symptoms, such as memory, language and judgement. These include memantine (Namenda) and cholinesterase inhibitors, such as Aricept, Exelon, and Razadyne.