Comparison of Cognitive Functioning in Patients with Parkinson Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia Behavioral Variant.

S. STURLA; FACUNDO MANES; ANABEL CHADE; TERESA TORRALVA; MARÍA ROCA

New Orleans

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology; 2012

American Academy of Neurology

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine whether there are significant differences in performance between a group of patients with Parkinson Disease (PD) and one with the behavioral variant of Fronto-Temporal Dementia (bvFTD) in cognitive tasks that have been previously associated with the frontal lobes. Background The executive dysfunction found in early PD has mainly been attributed to a disruption of the cortico-striatal loops that connect the basal ganglia and frontal-lobes. However, it is completely unclear whether these executive deficits reflect PD cortical (frontal) or subcortical (striatal) pathology. A possible approach to this problem is to compare performance in frontal and executive tasks between patients with early PD and a group of patients with predominantly fronto-cortical pathology, such as the behavioral variant of fronto-temporal dementia. Design/Methods: A group of patients with PD (n= 33) was compared to a group of patients with bvFTD (n= 35) in a battery composed of frontal lobe-dependent functions. Results: Patients with bvFDT performed significantly worse than patients with PD in tests of cognitive flexibility (p= 0.01), set shifting (Trail B p