Chapter 7 - Alzheimer's and Mind–Brain Problems

Abstract

Cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease were explored in this chapter. The neural mechanisms that produce cognitive loss and Alzheimer's disease were reviewed. It was suggested that Alzheimer's disease is not a necessary outcome even in the oldest old. Instead, there are certain factors like genetics and previous brain injury that make Alzheimer's more likely. In addition, factors like education, diet, exercise and cognitive stimulation all seem to play a role in the rate of cognitive aging and whether Alzheimer's disease will ultimately result. The recent explicit memory deficit in Alzheimer's disease was reviewed, with an example of the kind of memory test that is used to assess very early Alzheimer's patients. A RELR model was presented that simulated this episodic memory learning. Parallels between deficits that would be observed in Explicit RELR with missing information and the deficits observed in early Alzheimer's disease were noted. Finally, modern theories about consciousness and the mind–brain problem were reviewed with a goal of elucidating how the inability to understand consciousness may impact the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning.