Why has MCI research accelerated recently?
JCM: Interest in MCI began with the appreciation that dementia reflects brain disease rather than the normal aging process. As recently as 20 years ago, people thought it was normal for the elderly to fail in their memory and other mental abilities-that it was just an inevitable aspect of aging. What we have learned in the past two decades is that almost everyone who has substantial memory changes as they age has an underlying illness that explains this condition. The most common-and the most feared-is AD. With the understanding that substantial memory change is not part of normal aging, and with the development of therapies in the past ten years to treat the symptoms of AD, researchers have begun to focus on recognizing the disorder as early as possible. That is why MCI has become such an intensely studied entity. The research is not easy. Unlike heart disease, which has a variety of blood and diagnostic tests for identifying disease processes, we don’t yet have a blood test or MRI sc
