The hippocampus in neurodegenerative disease.

AD is the commonest neurodegenerative disorder resulting ultimately in dementia, a stage during which there is a loss of previously acquired intellectual skill and independent occupational and social function. Neurodegenerative changes within the hippocampus and an extended neuronal network involving the medial temporal and medial parietal lobe result in the archetypal memory impairment seen in Alzheimer's disease (AD). As attention focuses increasingly on early diagnosis and treatment of dementia, this understanding of the hippocampal involvement in AD has helped to develop diagnostic tools for use in early disease. However, hippocampal damage is also a common feature among non-AD neurodegenerative dementias. Neuroimaging techniques, in conjunction with behavioral and pathological techniques, can be used to determine the involvement of the hippocampus in AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.