The cerebral cortex is that part of a brain which is responsible for thoughts, memories, actions and personality. A cognitive impairment occurs once the brain cells of this region are destroyed. Such a state is termed as dementia. It is caused due to various reasons. Any condition that destroys the blood vessels and the nerve structures of brain can result in dementia.

Few factors leading to dementia can be cured, such as normal pressure hydrocephalus, brain tumors, and dementia that occurs because of physical issues and infections. Whereas most of the time unfortunately dementia is characterized as irreversible, degenerative and progressive illness.

Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia are the 2 major types of progressive dementia. These two may occur together and the conditions cannot be diagnosed until autopsy. Alzheimer’s disease is caused due to development of two unusual structures in the brain known as neuro-fibrillary tangles and plaques. The former one is a twisted mass of protein fibers that lies inside the neurons, and the later is a composite part of nerve cells engulfing a set of proteins called beta amyloid deposits. No one precisely knows the reasons for development of these structures. Few attribute it to inflammation, restricted blood flow and presence of free radicals. Others support the genetic factors.

Vascular dementia is known to affect 5 to 30 percent people suffering from dementia. This condition occurs due to lack of blood flow to the brain because of repeated small strokes. Other reasons could be vasculitis caused due to syphilis, Lyme disease, lupus, subdural hematomas, and subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Apart from these there are certain other factors which can also result into dementia such as brain injury, tumor in the brain, multiple sclerosis, Jakob’s disease, AIDS and few other degenerative diseases like Huntington's disease and Pick's disease.

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