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In Shakespeare's King Lear, the two protagonists show the adverse…

- - - - Natural genetic mutations typically occur; ex. mutations to the A[beta] processing within the brain
        
        May cause an increase in toxic A[beta] fragments, forming "oligomers" (complex molecule made up of multiple repeating monomer units)
        
        Oligomers lead to the formulation/accumulation of A[beta] plaques
        
        Oligomer Structure
        
        A[beta] Plaques
      - Neurofibrillary Tangles
    - - Dementia allows one's cognitive function to decline steadily, becoming progressively worse over time.
        
        Mental decline must affect two localized ares of the brain; for instance, either areas affecting verbal fluency, memory, logical thinking/calculating, understanding one's location and time, etc.
        
        Work and social interactions become very limited.
        
        Diagnosis
        
        Through mental status assessments, one can determine the difference in brain activity between ages
        
        Imaging studies
        
        Computed Tomography (CT) scans
        
        Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
        
        "Positron Emission Tomography" (PET)
        
        To detect a difference in the physiology of one's brain; decipher if the brain suffered natural neurological impacts/impairments
        
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        Emotional distress
        Relationships deteriorate, difficulty deciphering events, people, places, one's past (impaired memory), etc.
- - - - One can make the assumption that Lear possesses a form of vascular dementia, based on the behavioural symptoms now recognized by current researchers/medical practices.
        
        Textual Evidence
        
        Goneril and Regan's Assumptions
        
        Readers are aware that Lear is of old age, due to the fact that he divides his kingdom between his three daughters.
        Goneril and Regan blame his irrational and impulsive behaviours solely on his old age; him being senile.
        
        Regan
        "'Tis the infirmity of his age. Yet he
        hath ever but slenderly known
        himself" (I.I.300-303).
        Goneril
        "The best and soundest of his time
        hath been but rash. Then must we
        look from his age to receive not
        alone the imperfections of long-
        engrafted condition, but therewithal
        the unruly waywardness that infirm
        and choleric years bring with them" (I.I.303-309).
        
        In context, Goneril and Regan have received their kingdom inheritance after Lear banishes Cordelia. After false flattery, the evil sisters reveal their true identities. They are bluntly honest towards Lear, making the assumption that his age it to blame for his impulsive, oblivious actions.
        
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        Lear's Physical Behaviour
        
        Throughout the entire play, King Lear displays symptoms of some sort of assumed senile medical condition. One can assume this condition was related to, or simply just dementia.
        
        Lear
        "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!
        Rage, blow!
        You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
        Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
        You sulfurous and thought-executing fires,
        5Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
        Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
        Smite flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,
        Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once
        That make ingrateful man!" (III.II.1-9)
        
        Lear is still cognitive of the fact that he is going mad. He forcefully attempts to dismiss his dreadful feelings.
        
        In context, Lear runs out into the storm out of impulse. He is in an enraged state of mind. He believes this is an outcome of his daughters actions, but one can infer that Lear is doing this due to his condition, being dementia.
        Lear curses nature, something a human being does not typically do. He pleads at nature to be one with his emotions - enraged, confused, like a tornado in his mind. He cannot wrap his head around the way he is feeling.
        
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        One can apply the a modern lens to the play, as medical research and practices have advanced drastically since the 17th century.
        The audience can now apply the knowledge from current study, and place an educated diagnosis for Lear.
      - Medical examinations were not performed, there was no form of brain imaging/scans to aid in the proper diagnosis of the disease.
- - - - Occasionally, (this can occur naturally as one ages) "generic or specialized dysfunction of the Neurovascular Unit"
- - - - Significant Quotations