Effects of aging on encephalon

Abstract

The increase of the proportion of elderly has configured a global aspect. Aging is an irreversible process that occurs all life long, from birth to death, and it is followed by a decline of biological functions of most organs, as the reduction of kidney´s flow, the cardiac debit, the tolerance to the glucose, the vital capacity of the lungs, the corporal mass and the cellular immunity and is also followed of the decline in some intellectuals, associative and motor abilities. The aging process is extremely complex and multifactorial, and for its multidiscipline nature, the study of the molecular bases of this phenomenon has generated a great number of theories, being distinguished the random theories, based in the random accumulation of molecules with structural or functional alterations, and the related not-random theories with mechanisms programmed in the genoma of each organism. This work searches to contextualize the cerebral aging through the cortex, since it is the main structure of the neural system as for the sensorial, motor and associative functions. With the aging, morfo-physiological modifications occur as the reduction of cortical neurons and volume of the nucleus of the neurons; what could imply in pathologies as the loss of memory, the Alzheimer´s disease and other dementias.