Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: The Million-Copy Bestseller

by Peter Attia

Frontal and vascular dementias primarily affect the frontal lobe, a region of the brain responsible for executive functioning such as attention, organization, processing speed, and problem solving. So these forms of dementia rob an individual of such higher-order cognitive features. Alzheimer’s disease, on the other hand, predominantly affects the temporal lobes, so the most distinct symptoms relate to memory, language, and auditory processing (forming and comprehending speech)—although researchers are beginning to identify different possible subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease, based on which brain regions are most affected. Parkinson’s is a bit different in that it manifests primarily as a movement disorder, resulting from (in part) a deficiency in producing dopamine, a key neurotransmitter.