Does longer-term memory storage never become overloaded, and would such overload cause Alzheimer's disease and other dementia?

According to an uncritically accepted axiom, the human brain's capacity for longer-term memory storage is never overloaded. This viewpoint is shown to be contrary to all evidence and beyond reasonable credibility. The entire currently obtainable evidence for or against overload comes via the presenc e or absence of its manifestation in behaviour. This manifestation would be as an incurable, deteriorating, specific form of memory disorder, associat ed with old age and consequent to increased data-inputting and reductions o f brain capacity. There is in fact such a disorder, namely Alzheimer's dise ase and other dementia. This relationship provides elegant explanations for various peculiar findings, without encountering any counter-evidence. The premorbid accumulation of tangles in the hippocampus is explained via an in tegration of existing hippocampus theories. Long-term low doses of drugs th at reduce memory formation could prevent or delay dementia. TV-watching, vi deos, and some memory-enhancing nootropic drugs could increase risk. (C) 20 00 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.