Brain Aging

Brain aging is part of the aging of the whole body, largely determining the success of general aging and the quality of life of an older person. Brain aging is a complex multifactorial process that occurs throughout a human’s life, which includes changes at subcellular, tissue, and organ levels as well as at physiological level, mediating changes in neurophysiological (cognitive) functions. The review provides up-to-date data on morphological and physiological changes observed during natural aging; various phenotypes of brain aging are discussed, including both pathologically accelerated and «supernormal» aging; questions of the division between the norm and pathology are raised in the context of changes observed during brain aging; the factors both accelerating and decelerating the aging processes of the brain are considered along with linkage of natural aging with neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.