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Background: Severe socio-emotional impairments characterize the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). However, literature reports social cognition disorders in other dementias. Objective: In this study, we investigated the accuracy of social cognition performances in the early and differential diagnosis of bvFTD. Methods: We included 131 subjects: 32 bvFTD, 26 Alzheimer’s disease (AD), 16 primary progressive aphasia (PPA), 17 corticobasal syndrome (CBS), and 40 healthy control (HC). Each subject completed the Ekman 60 faces (Ek-60F) test assessing basic emotion recognition and the Story-based Empathy Task (SET) assessing attribution of intentions/emotions. A combined social measure (i.e., Emotion Recognition and Attribution (ERA) index) was calculated. One-way ANOVA has been used to compare performances among groups, while receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve tested measures ability to distinguish subjects with and without bvFTD. Results: Ek-60F and ERA index scores were significantly lower in bvFTD versus HC, AD, and PPA groups. ROC analyses significantly distinguished bvFTD from HC (AUC 0.82–0.92), with the Ek-60F test showing the highest performance, followed by the ERA index. These two social measures showed the best accuracy in detecting bvFTD from AD (AUC 0.78–0.74) and PPA (AUC 0.80–0.76). Investigated measures failed in detecting bvFTD from CBS. Conclusion: Accuracy analyses support the advantage of using social cognition tests for bvFTD diagnosis. Short social battery may reduce uncertainties and improve disease identification in clinical settings. We recommend a revision of current clinical criteria considering neuropsychological deficits in emotion recognition and processing tasks as key cognitive markers of this neurodegenerative syndrome.

Background: The Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI) is a questionnaire designed to quantify behavioral changes in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Literature showed heterogeneous FBI profiles in FTD versus Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with variable occurrence of positive and negative symptoms. Objective: In this study, we constructed a short FBI version (i.e., mini-FBI) with the aim to provide clinicians with a brief tool for the identification of early behavioral changes in behavioral variant of FTD (bvFTD), also facilitating the differential diagnosis with AD. Methods: 40 bvFTD and 33 AD patients were enrolled. FBI items were selected based on internal consistency and exploratory factor analysis. Convergent validity of mini-FBI was also assessed. A behavioral index (i.e., B-index) representing the balance between positive and negative mini-FBI symptoms was computed in order to analyze its distribution in bvFTD through a cluster analysis and to compare performance among patient groups. Results: The final version of the mini-FBI included 12 items, showing a significant convergent validity with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory scores (rp = 0.61, p

Background Current diagnostic criteria for behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and typical Alzheimer's disease (AD) include a differential pattern of neuropsychological impairments (episodic memory deficit in typical AD and dysexecutive syndrome in bvFTD). There is, however, large evidence of a frequent overlap in neuropsychological features, making the differential diagnosis extremely difficult. Objectives In this retrospective study, we evaluated the diagnostic value of different cognitive and neurobehavioral markers in bvFTD and AD patient groups. Methods We included 95 dementia patients with a clinical and biomarker evidence of bvFTD (n = 48) or typical AD (n = 47) pathology. A clinical 2-year follow-up confirmed clinical classification. Performances at basic cognitive tasks (memory, executive functions, visuo-spatial, language) as well as social cognition skills and neurobehavioral profiles have been recorded. A stepwise logistic regression model compared the neuropsychological profiles between groups and assessed the accuracy of cognitive and neurobehavioral markers in discriminating bvFTD from AD. Results Statistical comparison between patient groups proved social cognition and episodic memory impairments as main cognitive signatures of bvFTD and AD neuropsychological profiles, respectively. Only half of bvFTD patients showed attentive/executive deficits, questioning their role as cognitive marker of bvFTD. Notably, the large majority of bvFTD sample (i.e., 70%) poorly performed at delayed recall tasks. Logistic regression analysis identified social cognition performances, Frontal Behavioral Inventory and Mini-Mental State Examination scores as the best combination in distinguishing bvFTD from AD. Conclusion Social cognition tasks and socio-behavioral questionnaires are recommended in clinical settings to improve the accuracy of early diagnosis of bvFTD.

C9ORF72 repeat expansion is currently considered as a major genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and, in particular, of combined frontotemporal dementia-motor neuron disorder (FTD-MND) pedigrees. Studies of large series of patients have indicated that various phenotypic presentations may be observed even in the same family. Here, we describe four patients carrying a C9ORF72 mutation with heterogeneous clinical presentation sharing a rapid disease course. Cases #1 and #2 presented with predominant semantic deficits, accompanied in one patient by clinical signs of ALS. Case #3 showed a phenotype compatible with a diagnosis of behavioral variant of FTD. Case #4 presented with memory impairments, apathy, and social withdrawal, and had negative cerebrospinal fluid markers for Alzheimer's disease. Two patients showed a positive familiar history of MND and dementia (at least one first-degree family member affected). The two other patients were apparently sporadic cases. Our data provide further evidence for the heterogeneity of phenotypes associated with the C9ORF72 mutation and indicate its association with a fluent progressive aphasia phenotype. The present findings confirm the importance of screening for the hexanucleotide repeat expansion in chromosome 9 in the case not only of familial, but also of sporadic FTD, and in the presence of atypical cognitive disorders.

We report a new, pathologically verified Italian case of fatal familial insomnia, whose clinical presentation was characterised by complex behavioural disturbances, suggesting wakefulness/NREM/REM combinations.

Background Although only a few frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) patients develop frank amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), motor neuron dysfunctions (MNDys) occur in a larger proportion of patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate MNDys and ALS in a sample of consecutively enrolled sporadic FTLD patients. Methods Clinical and neurophysiological evaluations (i.e. needle electromyography) assessed lower (LMN) and upper (UMN) motor neuron function at the baseline in 70 probable FTLD patients (i.e., 26 behavioural variant-bvFTD, 20 primary progressive aphasias-PPAs and 24 corticobasal syndrome-CBS). To obtain a more accurate estimation, quantitative scales were also applied (i.e. ALSFRS-r and UMN scale). Patients were screened for MAPT , GRN and C9orf72 mutations. A mean clinical follow-up of 27.8 ± 22.4 months assessed MNDys progression and the clinical presentation of ALS. Results Five genetic cases were identified. Within the sample of sporadic patients, a relative low rate of FTLD patients was diagnosed as probable ALS (5%), while a higher proportion of patients (17%) showed clinical and neurophysiological MNDys. Thirteen patients (20%) presented with isolated clinical signs of LMN and/or UMN dysfunction, and 8 patients (12%) showed neurogenic changes at the electromyography. No differences in FTLD phenotype and disease duration were found between MNDys positive and negative patients. Clinical MNDys were highly associated with positive electromyographic findings. At follow-up, no MNDys positive patient developed ALS. Conclusion Neurophysiological and clinical examinations revealed mild MNDys in FTLD patients not fulfilling criteria for ALS. This condition did not evolve at a mean follow-up of two years. These results, indicating a subclinical degeneration of corticospinal tracts and lower motor neurons, suggest that FTLD patients may be more at risk of MNDys than the general population.

We investigated the prevalence of dementia in 673 subjects over 59 years of age in Vescovato, a small town of North Italy, using a two-phase survey. During phase I all subjects were administered the Hodkinson abbreviated mental test and the subjects with a score < or = 7 underwent further examination to ascertain the diagnosis of dementia. The prevalence ratio of dementia of all types was 9.8% (7.6-12.0, 95% CI) above age 59. In our population Alzheimer's disease (AD) was the most frequent type of dementia (prevalence ratio = 5.2%), followed by vascular dementia (2.7%). Our study confirms that AD prevalence estimate rises exponentially with age.

Objective To investigate the presence of sub-clinical cognitive dysfunction in non-demented patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using auditory event-related potentials (ERPs). Methods Ten subjects with ALS and 10 age- and sex-matched controls performed a passive three-stimulus paradigm with standard (80%), deviant (16%) and distracter (4%) stimuli. To quantify the mismatch component, the evoked response to the standard tones was subtracted from the corresponding deviant stimuli and novel response; the P3a component was obtained by subtracting the response to the standard tone from that to the novel stimuli. The amplitude and latency for the N1 component obtained with the standard stimuli were also measured. Clinical features, disability, cognitive status and depression were evaluated with standardised scales. Results There were no significant differences between patients and controls for latencies, while the N1, P3a and MMN (obtained by the subtraction Novel-Standard) were of lower amplitude in patients than in controls. In the patient group, the P3a latency correlated with months from disease onset and symptoms severity, measured with the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis severity scale. Conclusions Our findings confirm the hypothesis of a sub-clinical cognitive impairment in non-demented ALS patients, suggesting pathological involvement beyond the motor areas. Significance ERPs seem to be a promising technique to detect the possible impairment of extra-motor sub-clinical dysfunction in ALS, and an appropriate technique for the cognitive follow-up, as passive tasks, not requiring motor responses, are particularly adequate in a disorder leading to severe loss of motor function.

It has been recently reported that the occurrence of severe headache associated with temporary neurologic deficits and CSF lymphocytic pleocytosis is highly suggestive of the so-called "transient syndrome of headache with neurologic deficits and CSF lymphocytosis." In particular, in almost all of the 40 patients reported in the literature to date, the head pain was severe and of a type not previously experienced by the patient. In the present case report, we describe a patient who fulfilled almost all the proposed diagnostic criteria, except for the lack of a severe headache. Probably, a severe headache is not a compulsory feature of this syndrome. Some patients have rather mild headache accompanying their episodes of neurologic symptoms, and some attacks occur without any accompanying headache. It is possible that in some cases the absence of a severe headache, and thus the lack of CSF analysis, lead to misdiagnosis. Therefore, the prevalence of this syndrome could be underestimated.

Depression is the most prevalent functional psychiatric disorder in late life. The problem of motor disorders associated with antidepressant use is relevant in the elderly. Elderly people are physically more frail and more likely to be suffering from physical illness, and any drug given may exacerbate pre-existing diseases, or interact with other drug treatments being administered for physical conditions. Antidepressants have been reported to induce extrapyramidal symptoms, including parkinsonism. These observations prompted us to review the neurobiological mechanism that may be involved in this complex interplay including neurotransmitters and neuronal circuits involved in movement and emotion control and their changes related to aging and disease. The study of the correlations between motor and mood disorders and their putative biochemical bases, as presented in this review, provide a rationale either to understand or to foresee motor side effects for psychotropic drugs, in particular antidepressants.