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Neuroanatomical and Clinical Neuropsychological Changes in Aging and Senile Dementia

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Aging and Cognitive Processes

Part of the book series: Advances in the Study of Communication and Affect ((ASCA,volume 8))

Abstract

What is to follow must be considered merely a temporary review of the present state of the art. Research on aging, the brain, and behavior is in an explosive state; out of what appeared a very long history of ignorance and neglect there is emerging a rapidly growing field of research. Changes are occurring so rapidly in the field that this review will probably be outdated before it reaches the press, and considering the crucial importance of the research, I hope that it will be.

Throughout recorded history, the tragedy of aging has been, not that it comes, but that so often it brings with it a host of changes in the psychosocial patterns of the individual, changes that may degrade and enfeeble the most gallant and competent. We cannot fail to share, as psychiatrists and as human beings, the pain of subject, family, and friends walking this bitter path together. But we must not lose sight of the fact that where substrate mechanisms can be identified, there is hope, if not of a way back, then at least of a gentler path which may give to more of the aged, some measure of those much-celebrated compensations of age. (Scheibel & Scheibel, 1977, p. 39)

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Petit, T.L. (1982). Neuroanatomical and Clinical Neuropsychological Changes in Aging and Senile Dementia. In: Craik, F.I.M., Trehub, S. (eds) Aging and Cognitive Processes. Advances in the Study of Communication and Affect, vol 8. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4178-9_1

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