Table 1.
Demographic, clinical, and neuropsychological characteristics of participant groups
| Characteristic | Healthy controls | bvFTD | SD | PNFA | AD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | |||||
| No. in group∗ | 26 | 14 | 10 | 12 | 10 |
| Handedness (right:left) | 25:1 | 13:1 | 8:2 | 11:1 | 10:0 |
| Gender distribution (male:female) | 12:14 | 11:3† | 6:4 | 3:9 | 5:5 |
| Age (yrs): mean (range) | 67 (57–74) | 66 (52–84) | 65 (56–78) | 68 (57–79) | 66 (60–78) |
| Education score | 17 (2) | 15 (3) | 15 (3) | 15 (3) | 15 (2) |
| Symptom duration (yrs) | NA | 8.8 (6)†,‡,§ | 5.2 (2) | 4.8 (2) | 5.3 (2) |
| No. receiving AchEI/antidepressants | NA | 6/4 | 1/3 | 2/3 | 9/2 |
| MMSE (range) | 30 (29–30) | 25 (18–30) | 21 (9–29) | 28 (27–29) | 25 (21–29) |
| IQ | |||||
| Verbal | 123 (8) | 89 (20) | 80 (18)§ | 77 (15)§ | 101 (14) |
| Performance | 119 (14) | 97 (17) | 110 (17) | 98 (17) | 89 (16) |
| Episodic memory | |||||
| RMT words (/50) | 47 (3) | 35 (6) | 32 (7) | 40 (8) | 30 (5)||,† |
| RMT faces (/50) | 44 (4) | 34 (6) | 38 (8) | 38 (5) | 32 (5) |
| Executive function | |||||
| Stroop word | 21 (4) | 27 (9) | 27 (9) | 50 (14)||,‡,§ | 31 (9) |
| Stroop inhibition | 57 (16) | 94 (42) | 77 (32) | 118 (51) | 116 (47) |
| Digit span reverse (max) | 5 (1) | 5 (1) | 6 (2) | 3 (1)‡ | 5 (2) |
| Spatial span reverse (max) | 7.6 (2) | 5.6 (2) | 5.6 (2) | 4.7 (1) | 7.9 (2) |
| Visuoperceptual function | |||||
| VOSP (/20) | 18 (2) | 17 (2) | 16 (3) | 16 (2) | 16 (2) |
| Semantic processing | |||||
| BPVS (/150) | 148 (2) | 132 (15) | 99 (45)||,§ | 132 (24) | 140 (8) |
| Sound classification task¶ (45) | 40 (5.2) | 35 (10.9) | 35 (8.1)† | 38 (6.2) | 38 (7.1) |
Abbreviations: bvFTD, behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia; SD, semantic dementia; PNFA, progressive nonfluent aphasia; AD, Alzheimer's disease; AchEI, treatment with an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor; MMSE, Mini-Mental State Health Examination; IQ, intelligence quotient; NA, not applicable; RMT, Recognition Memory Test; VOSP, Visual Object and Space Perception battery; BPVS, British Picture Vocabulary Scale.
NOTE. Maximum total scores are shown (where applicable) after relevant neuropsychological tests; mean (standard deviation) data are shown unless otherwise indicated. Significant group deficits (P < .05) versus the healthy older control group are shown in bold. Other significant differences (P < .05) between groups are indicated by superscripts symbols and the explanation for these are provided below.
General neuropsychological data not available for two patients in the PNFA group and one patient in the AD group.
PNFA.
SD.
AD.
bvFTD.
Experimental nonverbal auditory semantic test (see text).