Neuroimaging in dementia.

Dementia is one of the most quickly expanding topics in psychiatric research, while remaining the most frustrating condition to treat. Over the past decade, the genetics and pathophysiology of certain dementias, especially dementia of the Alzheimer type, have been increasingly clarified. However, the treatment of this condition lags far behind its basic research. Although a number of approaches have been explored, from acetylcholinesterase inhibitors to amyloid vaccinations, the results have been disappointing (Broytman and Malter, 2004; Courtney et al., 2004; Ritchie et al., 2004; Robinson et al., 2004). Neuroimaging has been used in basic clinical research, for diagnostic purposes, or using dementia as a paradigm for local brain lesions to examine normal and disturbed cognitive performance and brain function in parallel. This review will try to give a brief summary of each of these approaches. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved