Alzheimer's disease: maladaptive synaptoplasticity hypothesis.

A deposition of amyloid is considered by many to be the principal causative event in Alzheimer's disease, with abnormal neurites, neurofibrillary tangles, cell loss, and dementia all occurring secondarily to this. This present hypothesis differs by proposing a maladaptive synaptoplastic response, in conjunction with an involution of cortico-cortical projection neurons, as the principal causative events. The specificity of the maladaptive synaptoplastic response for a subpopulation of human nerve cells is related to the evolutionary advancement of the association cortex and the adaptation of functionally connected brain regions.