Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's prevention specialist Jessica Langbaum says that like most working people she gets plenty of mental exercise without playing crossword puzzles or brain games. She says work is the key.

Two herpes viruses that cause skin rashes in toddlers may accelerate Alzheimer's disease when they infect brain cells. The finding suggests antiviral drugs might help protect the brain.

"Just the last few years alone have seen some serious breakthroughs in Alzheimer's research," Joseph Jebelli says. His new book is The Pursuit of Memory.

Author Lisa Genova takes her readers into the minds of other people.

Scientists now have a fairly noninvasive way to test for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare form of dementia. A similar test, they say, might offer earlier diagnoses of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.