Social cognition impairments in early stages of corticobasal

ANABEL CHADE; MARÍA ROCA; TERESA TORRALVA; OSCAR GERSHANIK; GONZALO GOMEZ AREVALO; B.F. BOEVE; FACUNDO MANES

Buenos Aires

Congreso; International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders; 2010

The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS)

Objective: To demonstrate impairment in social cognition in a case of early Corticobasal Degeneration Background: Theory of mind refers to the ability to infer others mental states, including intentions and feelings. Patient JW, 65 years old, started with gait instability and festination with frequent falls, upper left limb apraxia and bradikinesia. A levodopa test was negative. Medical history, neurological exam, biomarkers and fluorodeoxyglucose-Positron Emission Tomography were supportive with the diagnosis of early Corticobasal Degeneration Methods: The patient was evaluated with a neuropsychological battery and theory of mind tests especially designed to capture subtle deficits in cognitive and affective aspects of this function. His performance was compared with normative scores for age and level of education. Results: JW presented an intellectual performance superior to media (IQ estimate: 114) showing in the cognitive evaluation only low scores in speed of cognitive processing of information tests and in verbal phonological fluency. We observed important deficits in both tests of Theory of mind indicating difficulties in the capacity to infer feelings or thoughts of others (Theory of mind) Conclusions: Deficits in theory of mind tasks can be present in early stages of Corticobasal syndrome.