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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Nov 20.
Published in final edited form as: Neuron. 2013 Nov 20;80(4):10.1016/j.neuron.2013.10.008. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.10.008

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Evolution of the concept of cognitive impairment on vascular bases. Hardening of the arteries was considered the main cause in the early 1900s. The concept of multi-infarct dementia introduced the possibility of preventing dementia by controlling vascular risk factors. The introduction of brain imaging modalities (computer tomography, then magnetic resonance imaging) led to the realization that white matter disease, termed leukoaraiosis, was a major cause of cognitive impairment. In the 1990s the term VCI was introduced to broaden the spectrum of cognitive deficits caused by vascular factors. At this time, genetic causes of vascular damage causing dementia were also discovered, CADASIL being the first monogenic cause of vascular cognitive impairment, identified by M-G. Bousser and colleagues.