Based on a retrospective study of 19 neuropathologically verified cases with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), neuropsychiatric symptoms related to behavioral disturbances and their psychosocial consequences were studied. The results indicate that frontotemporal dementia is often misdiagnosed early in the clinical course. Behavioural features with impaired social interactions, impaired personal regulation, and loss of insight were seen in all patients. The psychosocial consequences reported in this paper challenge future research in frontotemporal dementia.

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The aims were to evaluate the cognitive performance and clinical diagnosis in patients (< 75 years) seeking help for subjective memory complaints, to determine the prevalence of certain psychiatric symptoms and to conduct follow-up examinations. At baseline 41% showed normal cognitive performance (subjective memory impairment; SMI), 37% fulfilled criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 22% were classified as dementia. There were significant associations between the three groups and experiences of psychosocial stress and feelings of anxiety. The proportion of psychosocial stress was significantly higher in SMI vs. MCI and SMI vs.dementia. Feelings of anxiety was significantly higher in SMI vs. MCI. At the threeyear follow-up, 88% of the SMI patients remained stable SMI and 60% of the MCI patients remained stable. There was a significant reduction of psychosocial stress and moderate reduction of feelings of anxiety among the SMI patients. The findings indicate that the risk of patients with SMI developing dementia is small within a three year span. We propose that subjective memory complaints might be influenced by the presence of psychosocial stress and feelings of anxiety disturbing the memory processes and interfering with the patients' evaluation of their memory function.

Understanding the role of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) in learning and memory is an important problem in cognitive neuroscience. Memory and learning processes that depend on the function of the MTL and related diencephalic structures (e.g., the anterior and mediodorsal thalamic nuclei) are defined as declarative. We have studied the MTL activity as indicated by regional cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography and statistical parametric mapping during recall of abstract designs in a less practiced memory state as well as in a well-practiced (well-encoded) memory state. The results showed an increased activity of the MTL bilaterally (including parahippocampal gyrus extending into hippocampus proper, as well as anterior lingual and anterior fusiform gyri) during retrieval in the less practiced memory state compared to the well-practiced memory state, indicating a dynamic role of the MTL in retrieval during the learning processes. The results also showed that the activation of the MTL decreases as the subjects learn to draw abstract designs from memory, indicating a changing role of the MTL during recall in the earlier stages of acquisition compared to the well-encoded declarative memory state. r 1997 Academic Press