Table 1.
General characteristics of participant groups.
| Characteristic | Healthy controls | bvFTD | SD |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | |||
| No. (m:f) | 9:11 | 16:3 | 6:4 |
| Handedness (R:L) | 17:3 | 17:2 | 9:1 |
| Age (yrs) | 69 (5.3) | 64 (7.2) | 66 (6.3) |
| Education (yrs) | 16.4 (2.0) | 15.1 (2.8) | 15.6 (2.6) |
| MMSE (/30) | 29 (1.4) | 24.3 (4.5) | 21.3 (6.3) |
| Symptom duration (yrs) | N/A | 8.1 (6.3) | 5.3 (2.9) |
| Neuroanatomical | |||
| Brain MRI atrophy: | |||
| Temporal predom L: symm: predom R | N/A | 0: 4: 7 | 9:0: 1 |
| Frontotemporal symmetric | N/A | 8 | 0 |
| Neuropsychological | |||
| General intellect: IQ | |||
| WASI verbal IQ | 126 (7.2) | 84 (22.2) | 75 (17.0) |
| WASI performance IQ | 124 (9.6) | 102 (20.7) | 106 (21.9) |
| Executive skills | |||
| WASI Block Design (/71) | 45.4( 12.1) | 32.5 (18.1) | 36.8 (20.7) |
| WASI Matrices (/32) | 26.5 (2.9) | 18.4 (9.0) | 19.8 (9.8) |
| WMS-R digit span forward (/12) | 9.2 (2.2) | 8.6 (2.8) | 8.2 (2.6) |
| WMS-R digit span reverse (/12) | 7.8 (2.2) | 5.8 (2.5) | 6.0 (3.0) |
| D-KEFS Stroop colour (s)* | 32.0 (6.3) | 46.9 (15.8) | 60.7 (31.9) |
| D-KEFS Stroop word (s)* | 23.7 (5.9) | 32.2 (12.3) | 36.2 (22.1) |
| D-KEFS Stroop interference (s)* | 58.1 (17.0) | 88.4 (31.3) | 88.3 (48.8) |
| Letter fluency (F: total) | 17.4 (4.4) | 7.7 (5.4) | 10.0 (4.8) |
| Category fluency (animals: total) | 25.3 (5.0) | 10.5 (6.8) | 6.2 (5.1) |
| Trails A (s) | 32.5 (7.4) | 59.8 (34.4) | 52.2 (17.8) |
| Trails B (s) | 67.1 (18.0) | 158 (81) | 154 (112) |
| WAIS-R Digit Symbol (total) | 54.9 (11.1) | 35.6 (13.4) | 39.7 (13.9) |
| Semantic memory | |||
| BPVS (/150) | 149 (1.1) | 123 (33.6) | 95 (47.4) |
| Synonyms concrete(/25) | 24.1 (0.76) | N/A | 16.3 (3.5) |
| Synonyms abstract(/25) | 24.3 (0.91) | N/A | 18.8 (3.1) |
| Language skills | |||
| WASI Vocabulary (/80) | 72.7 (3.27) | 39.7 (21.2) | 31.8 (19.9) |
| WASI Similarities (/48) | 41.5 (2.9) | 23 (12.0) | 17.2 (11.0) |
| GNT (/30) | 26.6 (2.3) | 12.3 (9.6) | 3.4 (6.1)† |
| NART (total correct/50) | 43.2 (4.9) | 30.4 (10.0) | 19.2 (14.2)† |
| Episodic memory | |||
| RMT words (/50) | 49.4 (0.9) | 37.1 (8.9) | 37 (6.7) |
| RMT faces (/50) | 44.7 (3.6) | 34.5 (7.8) | 32.3 (7.0) |
| Camden PAL (/24) | 20.5 (3.2) | 10.7 (7.5) | 3.8 (3.9)† |
| Posterior cortical skills | |||
| GDA (/24) | 14.8 (5.6) | 8.6 (6.8) | 11.1 (9.0) |
| VOSP Object Decision (/20) | 18.9 (1.6) | 16.3 (2.6) | 16.3 (4.3) |
Mean (standard deviation) scores are shown unless otherwise indicated; maximum scores are shown after tests (in parentheses). Bold denotes significantly different (p < 0.05) to the healthy control group; † significant difference between disease groups. *Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System versions of the traditional Stroop tests were used. Each condition comprises a 10 (column) × 5 (row) grid of targets and the participant is required to name all the targets from left to right in each row. In the ‘colour’ condition, the participant must correctly name each patch of colour in the grid (“red/ blue/ green”). In the ‘word’ condition, they must correctly read each word in the grid (“red/ blue/ green”). In the ‘interference’ condition, they must correctly identify the colour of the ink that each word is written in; this will be incongruous with the written word (e.g. the correct response to the word “red” printed in green ink is “green”). Scores here denote time taken to complete each grid in seconds. BPVS, British Picture Vocabulary Scale (Dunn et al., 1982); bvFTD, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia; Category fluency for animal category and letter fluency for the letter F in one minute (Gladsjo et al., 1999); GDA, Graded Difficulty Arithmetic (Jackson and Warrington, 1986); GNT, Graded Naming Test (McKenna and Warrington, 1983); MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination score (Folstein et al., 1975); N/A, not assessed; NART, National Adult Reading Test (Nelson, 1982); PAL, Paired Associate Learning test (Warrington, 1996); predom L/R, predominantly left / right temporal lobe atrophy; RMT, Recognition Memory Test (Warrington, 1984); symm, symmetric (temporal lobe) atrophy; Synonyms, Single Word Comprehension: A Concrete and Abstract Word Synonyms Test (E.K. Warrington et al., 1998); SD, semantic dementia; Stroop D-KEFS, Delis Kaplan Executive Function System (Delis et al., 2001); Trails-making task based on maximum time achievable 2.5 min on task A, 5 min on task B (Lezak et al., 2004); VOSP, Visual Object and Spatial Perception Battery (E.K. Warrington and James, 1991); WAIS-R, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐-Revised (D Wechsler, 1981); WASI, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (D. Wechsler, 1997); WMS digit span (Wechsler, 1987).