A new model of vascular dementia reveals hidden disease processes and raises urgent questions about the role of microplastics in brain health. Surprisingly, many patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease also had disease in the small blood vessels of the brain. “We suspect that in New Mexico maybe a half of our Alzheimer’s people also have vascular disease,” she said. Meanwhile, a fresh area of concern is the unknown health consequences of nano– and microplastics in the brain, Bearer said. Rosenberg, a longtime chair of the UNM Department of Neurology and also director of the UNM Center for Memory & Aging, has published extensively on the association of vascular disease with dementia symptoms.