The cholinergic system consists of neurotransmitters that regulate a lot of our mental functioning, particularly related to memory.

We might find a large number of people in the rather ridiculous position of taking what we call pro-cholinergic medication to counteract anti-cholinergic drugs they are already taking.

What we showed is that many of the people who are classified in this way have it due to the medication they are taking, and not because they have early Alzheimer's disease.

A large number of elderly people are taking medications that can mimic early dementia and are likely to be classed as having early dementia.

Language does this to our memories—simplifies, solidifies, codifies, mummifies. An oft-told story is like a photograph in a family album; eventually, it replaces the moment it was meant to capture.

Memory is all we are. Moments and feelings, captured in amber, strung on filaments of reason. Take a man’s memories and you take all of him. Chip away a memory at a time and you destroy him as surely as if you hammered nail after nail through his skull.