ABSTRACT
The Renaissance idea that mortui vivos docent – ‘the dead teach the living’ – has become less fashionable in recent decades, and post-mortem rates have declined, possibly as diagnostic overconfidence has increased. Nonetheless, the definitive diagnosis of dementia remains histopathological, and histopathological examination must take place at post-mortem examination since antemortem brain biopsy is rarely justified. The obtaining of brains for post-mortem study, or ‘brain donation’, is an important part of a modern memory clinic.
