How Alzheimer's Disease Affects the Brain
Alzheimer’s disrupts processes vital to neurons and their neural networks, including communication, metabolism, and repair. Damage is widespread, as many neurons stop functioning, lose connections with other neurons; causing the cells to die. In the beginning development of the disease, neurons and their connections in parts of the brain involved in memory, including the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus are destroyed. Later it affects areas in the cerebral cortex responsible for language, reasoning, and social behavior. As the disease progresses even further, the patient becomes helpless and unresponsive to their environment, thus requiring them to have a caretaker to nurture the Alzheimer’s patient.