This study examined everyday action impairment in participants with Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) by comparison with participants with Parkinson's disease-no dementia (PD) or Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in reference to a neuropsychological model. Participants with PDD (n = 20), PD (n = 20), or AD (n = 20) were administered performance-based measures of everyday functioning that allowed for the quantification of overall performance and error types. Also, caregiver ratings of functional independence were obtained. On performance-based tests, the PDD group exhibited greater functional impairment than the PD group but comparable overall impairment relative to the AD group. Error patterns did not differ between PDD and PD participants but the PDD group demonstrated a higher proportion of commission errors and lower proportion of omission errors relative to the AD group. Hierarchical regression analyses showed omission errors were significantly predicted by neuropsychological measures of episodic memory, whereas commission errors were predicted by both measures of general dementia severity (MMSE) and executive control. Everyday action impairment in PDD differs quantitatively from PD but qualitatively from AD and may be characterized by a relatively high proportion of commission errors—an error type associated with executive control deficits. (JINS, 2012, 18, 1–12)

The longitudinal assessment of episodic and semantic memory was obtained from 236 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD, n = 128) and with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD, n = 108), including patients with a social comportment/dysexecutive (SOC/EXEC) disorder, progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA), semantic dementia (SemD), and corticobasal syndrome (CBS). At the initial assessment, AD patients obtained a lower score on the delayed free recall test than other patients. Longitudinal analyses for delayed free recall found converging performance, with all patients reaching the same level of impairment as AD patients. On the initial evaluation for delayed recognition, AD patients also obtained lower scores than other groups. Longitudinal analyses for delayed recognition test performance found that AD patients consistently produced lower scores than other groups and no convergence between AD and other dementia groups was seen. For semantic memory, there were no initial between-group differences. However, longitudinal analyses for semantic memory revealed group differences over illness duration, with worse performance for SemD versus AD, PNFA, SOC/EXEC, and CBS patients. These data suggest the presence of specific longitudinal patterns of impairment for episodic and semantic memory in AD and FTLD patients suggesting that all forms of dementia do not necessarily converge into a single phenotype. (JINS, 2010, 16, 278–286.)

We hypothesized that specific neuropsychological deficits were associated with specific patterns of atrophy. A magnetic resonance imaging volumetric study and a neuropsychological protocol were obtained for patients with several frontotemporal lobar dementia phenotypes including a social/dysexecutive (SOC/EXEC, n = 17), progressive nonfluent aphasia (n = 9), semantic dementia (n = 7), corticobasal syndrome (n = 9), and Alzheimer’s disease (n = 21). Blinded to testing results, patients were partitioned according to pattern of predominant cortical atrophy; our partitioning algorithm had been derived using seriation, a hierarchical classification technique. Neuropsychological test scores were regressed versus these atrophy patterns as fixed effects using the covariate total atrophy as marker for disease severity. The results showed the model accounted for substantial variance. Furthermore, the “large-scale networks” associated with each neuropsychological test conformed well to the known literature. For example, bilateral prefrontal cortical atrophy was exclusively associated with SOC/EXEC dysfunction. The neuropsychological principle of “double dissociation” was supported not just by such active associations but also by the “silence” of locations not previously implicated by the literature. We conclude that classifying patients with degenerative dementia by specific pattern of cortical atrophy has the potential to predict individual patterns of cognitive deficits. (JINS, 2009, 15, 459–470.)

We evaluated freehand picture production of familiar objects in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. The overall recognizability of their drawings was significantly compromised. Error analyses revealed the production of category violations and the frequent inclusion of incorrect features in a picture that were borrowed from semantically related objects, suggesting difficulty distinguishing between items with overlapping feature sets in semantic memory. Analyses of individual patient drawing profiles also revealed that some patients are disproportionately compromised in expressing a particular perceptual feature, implicating difficulty at the level of perceptual processing. Regression analyses demonstrated the contribution of limited visual attentional resources. We conclude that impaired freehand drawing in probable Alzheimer's disease is multifactorial in nature. (JINS, 1996, 2, 226–235.)

Aphasia is extraordinarily common. Over one million people in the US currently suffer from aphasia. The personal and societal costs associated with aphasia are enormous. We live in a highly verbal world, and compromised language communication limits the aphasic's participation in society. Activities associated with a reasonable quality of life are highly constrained, and significant depression and other psychological costs are frequent. From a financial perspective, it is the aphasic's limited communicative capacity—not an associated motor disorder—that constrains employment and the ability to contribute productively to society. Thus, there are many reasons to pursue aphasia therapy. Yet effective aphasia therapies are few. Despite the frequency of aphasia and its enormous costs, resources devoted to the treatment of aphasia have been disappointingly modest.

This review summarizes the clinical, imaging, and pathological features of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Clinicians have become increasingly sensitive to FTD in the differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Clinical subgroups of FTD patients have been recognized, including patients with progressive non-fluent aphasia, semantic dementia, and behavioral disorder with executive difficulty. The clinical, neuroimaging and neuropathological profiles associated with these clinically defined subgroups are examined. (JINS, 2002, 8, 566–583.)

In this ambitious and densely written volume, Glezerman and Balkoski attempt to present their theory of the neural basis for language and thought, and provide evidence from the literature to support their model. Their model is based on a neurobehavioral analysis of movement by the Russian physiologist Nicolai Bernstein. He proposed “horizontal” (intrahemispheric), “vertical” (hierarchical), and interhemispheric principles of brain organization that Glezerman and Balkoski have applied to the cerebral organization of language. Bernstein's basic model is described in detail in the first chapter of the book. The subsequent four chapters each consider a specific brain region and a related aspect of language and thought. Each of these chapters begins with a description of the relevant neuroanatomy. The authors then review the cognitive processes and knowledge that this brain area supports. Each chapter then considers the relevant form of aphasia that emerges following insult to the area under discussion. For example, the second chapter is concerned with temporal–occipital cortices and the role of this brain region in visual object perception, thought, and the meanings of individual words. After describing the regional anatomy, the authors characterize their perspective on object perception and how the breakdown of this process can lead to visual agnosia. Glezerman and Balkoski then relate this to the cerebral organization of word meaning and to disorders of naming. Chapter 3 is concerned with lateral temporal cortex and phonologic representations of words. The authors discuss the sound codes of a word, and how this coding process can break down