eprintid: 3074
rev_number: 6
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/30/74
datestamp: 2016-02-18 12:23:15
lastmod: 2016-02-18 12:23:15
status_changed: 2016-02-18 12:23:15
type: book_section
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Pietrini, Pietro
creators_name: Salmon, Eric
creators_name: Nichelli, Paolo
creators_id: pietro.pietrini@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
title: Consciousness and Dementia: How the Brain Loses Its Self
ispublished: pub
subjects: RC0321
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: none
keywords: Dementia; Alzheimer's disease; Psychiatry; Brain Imaging; Brain connectivity
abstract: Consciousness is based on the ability to rapidly integrate information and requires the optimal functioning of neural networks widely distributed between the thalami and the whole cortical mantle. Neurodegenerative processes that occur in dementing disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and Lewy Body Disease, lead to a progressive disruption of the brain functional and anatomical connectivity that sustains complex mental activity in the human brain. Not only different dementia syndromes affect the brain in different ways but also patients with the same disease may show distinctive clinical features. By combining clinical, neuropsychological and functional brain imaging studies in selected patients, scientists are gaining new insights on the cerebral bases of conscious mental activity and of the neural events that make awareness of the surrounding world and of ourselves to dissolve.
date: 2008
date_type: published
publisher: Academic Press
pagerange: 204 - 216
pages: 12
refereed: TRUE
isbn: 978-0-12-374168-4
book_title: The Neurology of Consciousness
official_url: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123741684000162
citation:   Pietrini, Pietro and Salmon, Eric and Nichelli, Paolo  Consciousness and Dementia: How the Brain Loses Its Self.   In:  The Neurology of Consciousness.   Academic Press, 204 - 216.  ISBN 978-0-12-374168-4      (2008)