ABSTRACT
Although many older adults note at least some cognitive decline with advancing age, for most of them, the changes do not critically affect the way in which they function in daily life. For a subset of older adults, however, aging is associated with more pronounced cognitive decline. Some of these individuals will meet the criteria for dementia. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, characterized by the accumulation of extracellular neuritic plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (see Goedert & Spillantini, 2006 for review). Because these pathological changes affect the medial temporal lobe first, long-term memory deficits tend to be the best indicator of mild Alzheimer’s disease (Locascio, Growdon, & Corkin, 1995).
