A very incomplete comprehensive theory of Alzheimer's disease.

For this meeting, I was asked to put down some ideas toward the development of theories of the etiology and pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. This charge has led to a first attempt to consider the "big picture," at least as seen from my viewpoint. Many details of the schemes I propose could be discussed in much greater depth, but I have tried to avoid getting bogged down in this way. It is sometimes valuable to step back from our own little domains of research and to attempt to integrate what we have collectively discovered into a more comprehensive framework.