Tangled Up
Canbury (Verlag)
978-1-914487-63-7 (ISBN)
The only comprehensive guide to the history and science of Alzheimer’s disease
When Alzheimer’s disease enters a family, it rarely arrives with clarity. A forgotten appointment, a repeated story, a moment of sudden disorientation—small fractures that raise frightening questions about the future. Tangled Up: The History and Science of Alzheimer’s Disease is Professor Michael Hornberger’s clear, readable guide to what is happening inside the brain, why it happens, and what today’s science can do about it.
This is not a vague “brain health” overview. It is a lay-friendly journey through the neuroscience of Alzheimer’s disease: how the earliest brain changes build silently over years; how they translate into the symptoms families see; and why the story of Alzheimer’s is, at its heart, a story of proteins — amyloid plaques and tau tangles — becoming dangerously tangled up.
Hornberger begins where the modern field began: early 20th-Century Germany, where Alois Alzheimer met Auguste Deter, the first patient whose symptoms were linked to distinctive microscopic changes in the brain. Alongside Alzheimer stands the overlooked Oskar Fischer — another pioneer whose discovery deserves to be remembered. Part history, part scientific detective story, these opening chapters bring human voices and hard evidence together.
From there, Tangled Up moves into what most of us fear most: memory. Hornberger explains how episodic memory works — how the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves the events of our lives — and why Alzheimer’s disease disrupts access to recent memories first. You’ll understand why a loved one may seem to be “living in the past,” why the same questions return again and again, and why some everyday forgetfulness is normal ageing, while other patterns deserve attention.
One of the book’s most valuable contributions is its spotlight on an under-recognised early warning sign: spatial disorientation. Getting lost in familiar places, confusion in one’s own home, and a shrinking “mental map” can appear early and carry real-world risk. Tangled Up shows how the brain’s navigation systems work and why Alzheimer’s can unsettle them — offering a new lens for understanding behaviour and planning for safety without surrendering dignity.
At the core of the book is a deep dive into plaques and tangles. You’ll learn what amyloid and tau normally do, how they go awry, how they spread through the brain, and how modern biomarker technology is transforming diagnosis. Blood tests, spinal fluid measures, and advanced brain imaging are opening the door to earlier detection — sometimes even before symptoms are obvious — changing the future of prevention, clinical trials, and treatment.
And treatments are no longer a distant promise. Hornberger explains the breakthroughs and the limitations: why many drug trials failed, why targeting a single pathway is difficult, and why some newer medications can slow progression in early stages. He demystifies the headlines around monoclonal antibodies and other emerging therapies, helping you follow the science with confidence instead of confusion.
Because fear often begins with family history, Tangled Up tackles genetics with reassurance and precision. You’ll learn the difference between rare inherited forms and common risk genes, and why genes are rarely destiny. Just as importantly, Hornberger explores lifestyle and environmental risk factors — what is modifiable, what is not, and what evidence suggests can meaningfully lower risk.
Finally, the book broadens the public understanding of Alzheimer’s disease by covering rarer forms that don’t begin with memory loss: variants that present with changes in behaviour, vision, language, or movement. Recognising these patterns can be life-changing for patients and families searching for answers.
For readers seeking a comprehensive, trustworthy Alzheimer’s disease book — grounded in modern neuroscience yet written for general readers — Tangled Up brings the history, the science, and the practical implications into one compelling narrative. Whether you are a family member, caregiver, clinician, advocate, or simply curious about the brain, you will finish better informed, better prepared, and less afraid.
Start reading today and make sense of Alzheimer’s science.
Michael Hornberger is Professor of Applied Dementia Research and Associate Dean of Innovation at the University of Southampton in the UK. He regularly meets patients with Alzheimer’s disease as part of his research aimed at improving diagnosis, disease tracking and symptom management. Michael is originally from Germany and studied at the universities of Osnabruck and Vienna. He gravitated to England where he did his PhD at University College London before working at Cambridge University. He spent six years in Sydney, Australia, before returning to Cambridge. He then worked at Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia. In his spare time, he listens to jazz.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
Part I – Alois & Auguste (and a bit of Oskar)
Chapter 1 – Dr Hoffmann’s vision
Chapter 2 – Mrs Deter
Chapter 3 – Alois Alzheimer
Chapter 4 – Munich via Heidelberg
Chapter 5 – 1906
Chapter 6 – The Tübingen aftermath
Chapter 7 – Fischer’s disease
Chapter 8 – Alzheimer’s legacy
Part I – Summary
Part II – Memory and Space
Chapter 9 – ‘You are not my type’
Chapter 10 – The art of memory
Chapter 11 – ‘Secret’ memory techniques
Chapter 12 – ‘Attention!’
Chapter 13 – ‘Enter the seahorse’
Chapter 14 – Encoding, storage, retrieval
Chapter 15 – ‘It’s all about access’
Chapter 16 – The imaginary Mrs A
Chapter 17 – Spatial Disorientation
Chapter 18 – ‘Lost in space’
Part II – Summary
Part III – Amyloid and Tau
Chapter 19 – Glorious proteins
Chapter 20 – Amyloid
Chapter 21 – Beta-amyloid formation
Chapter 22 – ‘Location, location, location… and timing’
Chapter 23 – Tau
Chapter 24 – ‘Who ordered all the phosphate?’
Chapter 25 – Tau ‘infection’
Chapter 26 – Amyloid versus Tau
Chapter 27 – The ‘emergence’ of the disease
Chapter 28 – Biomarker technology
Chapter 29 – Amyloid treatment approaches
Decreasing beta-amyloid production
Prevention of beta-amyloid accumulation
Increase of beta-amyloid removal
Chapter 30 – Tau treatment approaches
Decrease of overall tau
Decrease of tau phosphorylation
Decrease phosphorylated tau accumulation
Increase phosphorylated tau removal
Chapter 31 – Why have drug trials failed so far?
Phase I
Phase II
Phase III
Part III – Summary
Part IV – Genetics and lifestyle
Chapter 32 – Genetics 101
Chapter 33 – Familial Alzheimer’s disease
APP
PSEN
MAPT
Chapter 34 – ‘Modifiable’ risk genes
APOE
TREM2
Chapter 35 – A word on genetic testing
Chapter 36 – Non-modifiable lifestyle factors
Age
Education
Hearing loss
Chapter 37 – Modifiable lifestyle factors
Diabetes, hypertension and obesity
Physical activity
Diet and nutrition
Sleep
Other modifiable lifestyle risk factors
Part IV – Summary
Part V – Rarer forms of Alzheimer’s disease
Chapter 38 – Frontal variant Alzheimer’s disease
Chapter 39 – Posterior Cortical Atrophy
Chapter 40 – Logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia
Chapter 41 – Corticobasal syndrome
Chapter 42 – A final word on the rarer forms of Alzheimer’s disease
Part V – Summary
Epilogue
Further country-specific links (English language)
Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 14.05.2025 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 8 Illustrations, color; 2 Plates, color; 3 Plates, black and white |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 153 x 234 mm |
| Gewicht | 300 g |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie |
| Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Geriatrie | |
| Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Geschichte / Ethik der Medizin | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Sozialpädagogik | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-914487-63-X / 191448763X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-914487-63-7 / 9781914487637 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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