5. Misplacing Things and Losing the Ability to Retrace Steps: The Memory Puzzle of Mixed Dementia
One of the perplexing symptoms exhibited by individuals with mixed dementia is misplacing belongings and inability to retrace their steps to locate them. Not only do they put things in unusual places, but they also lose the capacity to remember where they might have left an item. This is not the standard forgetfulness that most people experience; it is recurring and tends to disrupt daily routines.
This symptom primarily arises due to damage in the hippocampus and the temporal lobes, the brain areas crucial for memory processing. Alzheimer’s disease, a primary component of mixed dementia, is known to cause significant damage in these areas, particularly the hippocampus, leading to severe memory loss.
In Alzheimer’s, the disease process leads to the formation of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, abnormal protein structures that cause neuronal death and disrupt the functioning of brain cells. When these structures accumulate in memory-related regions, it results in memory problems such as the inability to retrace steps.
On the other hand, vascular dementia, another contributor to mixed dementia, can also lead to similar symptoms. When a stroke or series of mini-strokes occur, they limit the blood flow to the brain, depriving neurons of vital oxygen and nutrients. This can cause neurons in the memory-processing areas to die off, thereby leading to memory impairments like misplacing items and inability to retrace steps. (5)
