[Neurological examination of the elderly. Principle modifications and most-frequent abnormalities]

This article will review age-related changes in the neurological examination. The involutional process is a diffuse one, affecting all levels of the neuraxis simultaneously. Most of the numerous little manifestations distinguishing them so sharply from the youthful are really features of the neurology of the elderly. Some signs are characteristic: attitude of general flexion, general poverty of movement, gait, minor extrapyramidal signs, primitive reflexes. However, these features may also be caused by neurological diseases common in the elderly, such as dementia or cervical myelopathy, which is very common after 75 years.