). These individuals also had signs of being elderly such as worn or lost teeth and an increase in the ratio of white to grey matter in brain tissues.
What's more, the locations of brain lesions found in the dolphins matched with equivalent areas seen in humans with Alzheimer's. While it wasn't possible for the researchers to verify an Alzheimer's diagnosis, as they couldn't test the deceased animals' levels of cognitive impairment, there is no record of accumulations of both proteins in humans without the disease.
"We were fascinated to see brain changes in aged dolphins similar to those in human aging and Alzheimer's disease,", it's possible they aid fellow pod members who begin to struggle with their brains. This means there's a chance they'd survive for longer, allowing further progression of the disease than in solitary species, the researchers note.' theory of this mysterious, fatal behavior.
"In humans, the first symptoms of AD-associated cognitive decline include confusion of time and place and a poor sense of direction," Vacher and colleagues