Seeing famous actors e.g. Robin Williams, and Bruce Willis suffering from dementia made me wonder in later stages do the people still aware of death? We all kniw death either because of religion belief or thought of the process but we don’t know when we become aware of it or is it just inherit.
Depending on the damage done to the brain, it could be a full-on recognition of impending death or just a primal, lizard brain fear that something is wrong and getting worse. I think Robin Williams was in the first category, and he was so fearful of the future that he took his own life and prevented himself from reaching stage two.