[Morphological bases for age changes in memory].

The electrone microscopy of cerebral cortex (the 40th Brodmann's area) in 78, 79 and 83-year-old humans with no nervous or psychic disturbances and deceased during surgical intervention revealed significant changes of neuronal cytoplasm, dendrites, spines, axons and axonal synaptic terminals. Ultrastructural investigation of different acoustic areas of old cats cortex revealed the same changes and served as the control of harmlessness of the studies in humans. According to modern hypothesis on the memory mechanisms and their morphological substrate, the changes discovered in human cerebral cortex may serve as a possible cause of the age-induced memory changes.