Social Cognition Tests Can Discriminate Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia From Alzheimer’s Disease Independently of Executive Functioning

• Published in: Archives of clinical neuropsychology Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 831 - 837
• Main Authors: Moura, Millena Vieira Brandão, Mariano, Luciano Inácio, Teixeira, Antônio Lúcio, Caramelli, Paulo, de Souza, Leonardo Cruz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 01-08-2021
• Subjects: Alzheimer’s disease; Frontotemporal dementia; Executive function
• ISSN: 1873-5843; 1873-5843
• DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acaa084

Abstract
Objective
To investigate the accuracy of the Social and Emotional Assessment-short version (Mini-SEA) to differentiate subgroups of behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) defined according to executive performance.
Methods
bvFTD (n = 21), AD (n = 20), and healthy controls (HC, n = 23) underwent the Mini-SEA, comprising the Facial Emotion Recognition Test (FERT) and the faux-pas test. AD and bvFTD patients were classified according to their performance in the Frontal Assessment Battery into dysexecutive and nondysexecutive subgroups.
Results
The area under the curve (AUC) values for the faux-pas test were 0.87 (dysexecutive-bvFTD vs. dysexecutive-AD) and 0.96 (non-dysexecutive-bvFTD vs. nondysexecutive-AD). The AUC values for FERT were 0.99 (dysexecutive-bvFTD vs. dysexecutive-AD) and 0.65 (nondysexecutive-bvFTD vs. nondysexecutive-AD); the AUC values for the Mini-SEA (total-score) were 0.95 (dysexecutive-bvFTD vs. dysexecutive-AD) and 0.88 (nondysexecutive-bvFTD vs. nondysexecutive-AD).
Discussion
Social Cognition tests accurately distinguish bvFTD from AD regardless of the executive profile.