Alzheimer's disease is associated with progressively dysfunctional gene expression in the limbic system of the brain. The thalamus and primary visual cortex are thought to be initially spared of Alzheimer-type changes that ravage the association neocortex. In this study, using DNA arrays and Western immunoassay, gene expression patterns were examined in the thalamus and primary visual cortex of moderate-stage and late-stage Alzheimer's disease and age-matched controls using a set of proinflammatory genes known to be upregulated in the temporal lobe neocortex and hippocampus of moderate-stage Alzheimer's disease. The data indicate that, in late-stage Alzheimer's disease, proinflammatory and proapoptotic gene expression spreads into the primary visual sensory cortex. This upregulation of pathological gene expression could be, in part, responsible for the visual disturbances associated with end-stages of the Alzheimer process.