Researchers characterize a different kind of dementia

Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are frequently considered one and the same, but a new study characterizes a different kind of dementia, called LATE. Researchers say it seems to cause cognitive impairment like Alzheimer’s, but there is one striking difference: Instead of amyloid and tau proteins that are usually found in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s, those with LATE seem to have a different protein known as TDP-43 in their brains. The disease could be affecting between 20% and 50% of people over the age of 80, the researchers estimate, based on the prevalence of the condition in autopsied brains. The classification they describe is preliminary, the authors write, “because much remains to be learned about LATE.”