Behavioral assessment has been investigated in frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease, but has not been explored extensively in subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). We explored the ability of a modified version of the Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI-mod) to discriminate between patients with distinct subtypes of PPA and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We hypothesized that individuals with nonfluent agrammatic PPA (nfaPPA) would have higher negative behavior scores than other groups and that individuals with semantic variant PPA (svPPA) would have higher disinhibition scores than other groups. Family members and/or caregivers of 120 individuals with PPA and MCI (mean age 69.54+8.75 years; 65 (54%) female; education 16.06±2.68 years; disease duration 46.47±34.26 months) completed the FBI-mod [logopenic PPA (lvPPA) n = 40. nfaPPA n = 29, svPPA n = 27, MCI n = 24]. The groups were not significantly different in age, gender, education, or disease duration. There were no significant differences between the groups for negative behaviors (p = 0.72) and disinhibition scores (p = 0.14). When comparing negative and disinhibition scores (in percent), negative scores were significantly higher in all groups (p < 0.001). When comparing subtest items, there was a pairwise difference between lvPPA and svPPA for restlessness (lvPPA < svPPA, p = 0.02, after adjusting for multiple between-group comparisons). There was a significant difference in the proportion of severe neglect between the groups with lvPPA having a lower proportion than the other two variants (p = 0.05), and there was a significant difference in the proportion of severe poor judgment between the groups with lvPPA also having a lower proportion than nfaPPA (p = 0.04). This study reveals the greater negative behavioral disturbance than disinhibition in the PPA and MCI groups of similar age and duration since onset and identifies different profiles for some specific behaviors for the PPA groups. These findings may have clinical and practical implications.
We hypothesized that distinct acute right hemisphere lesions disrupt separate components of valuation and emotional response to winning and losing money and of emotional empathy in observing a partner win or lose money. We measured skin conductance response (SCR) and ratings of emotions when acute right hemisphere stroke patients or healthy controls won or lost money in roulette, or when they watched a partner win or lose. Our results showed that percentage of damage after stroke to right anterior insula and frontal operculum negatively correlated with both SCR to winning and losing and difference between rating wins versus losses.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.