Abstract
Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) encompasses vascular dementia (VaD) and is the second leading form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease (AD) plaguing the elderly population. VaD is a progressive disease that affects cognitive abilities, especially executive functioning. At present VaD lacks suitable animal models, which constrain the progress of identification of molecular and cellular mechanisms of the disease and developing suitable interventions. In this chapter, we will present and discuss the experimental animal models that have been used for VaD studies. The limitations and strengths of these models, along with important research findings, are also addressed.
Keywords: CADASIL, Cognition, 2-VO, Vascular Dementia, Vascular Cognitive Impairment, White Matter.