Nervous / VISUAL EXPLAINER
How Alzheimer’s Disease Changes Brain Connections
Alzheimer’s disease involves synaptic degeneration and loss. Dysfunction or loss of these contacts disrupts communication between neurons. A normal synaptic cleft is not itself damage, and not every contact disappears.
READ THE IMAGE
What the illustration shows
Navy and gold poster titled How Alzheimer’s Disease Changes Brain Connections. A small sagittal brain locator introduces four blue-and-ivory panels. Blue presynaptic terminals face ivory dendritic tissue across narrow normal clefts. The upper-left panel shows several organized contacts; the upper-right retains some contacts while a dashed spine outline marks an illustrative lost contact site. A lower-left closeup labels the presynaptic terminal, normal cleft and receiving membrane, explicitly stating that the cleft is normal rather than damage. The lower-right shows remaining contacts beside a dashed former site on a continuous dendritic process. The text describes synaptic damage and loss without measured counts, a diagnostic image or fixed disease timeline. Patterns and mechanisms vary; the illustration is schematic and not to scale. AllHumanBody.com and its full slogan appear in the navy footer.
How to interpret this poster
- Illustrative sites and scale, not counts, stage, patient diagnosis or fixed amyloid–tau sequence. Ordinary aging/forgetfulness is not diagnosed from this image. No prevention, drug response or prognosis.
- AI-assisted educational illustration; not physician certification, a diagnosis or individualized medical advice.
- Fine annotations require enlargement; preserve the full uncropped illustration and its qualifiers.
AI-assisted educational illustration, adapted into web-sized images without changing its composition. This is general education, not an individual diagnosis or treatment recommendation.
EVIDENCE / CONTEXT
Sources and what they support
- Alzheimer’s Association: Brain tour ↗
Normal neuronal contacts and transmission.
- Alzheimer’s Association: Brain changes ↗
Fewer synapses and altered communication.
- Tzioras et al2023 synapse degeneration review ↗
Synaptic degeneration/loss with complex mechanisms.
Evidence correspondence is limited to the abstract.