This editorial provides an overview of the special issue of Current Alzheimer Research. This special issue of Current Alzheimer Research brings together some of the seminal presentations made at the 1st IBRO Middle East Neuroscience Conference held in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in February 2011. The conference was organized by the Neuroscience Research Priority Group of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), in collaboration with the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO). The aim of the Conference was to bring together neuroscientists from the Middle East, North Africa and the rest of the world to discuss the advances in the fields of basic and clinical neuroscience. The themes of the conference included Neurodegenerative Diseases, Neuropsychiatry and Behavior, Neurotransmitters and Neuropeptides in Health and Disease, Neuroimaging in Health and Diseases, Neuroimmunology and Neuroendocrinology. This issue features eight reviews and two original studies. One of the articles review the role of alpha synuclein in Parkinson’s disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disease. Another article describes how the ageing brain is characterized by the presence of multiple pathologies rather than characteristic neuropathological lesions.