Vascular dementia -- cognitive impairment caused by disease in the brain's small blood vessels -- is a widespread problem, but it has not been as thoroughly studied as Alzheimer's disease, in which abnormal plaques and protein tangles are deposited in neural tissue, according to researchers. 

The team at the University of New Mexico developed a new model for characterising and categorising different forms of vascular dementia to better understand the various forms of the disease and find effective treatments.