Summary of subject characteristics and behavioural data
| bvFTD | svPPA | nfvPPA | Controls | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n=12 | n=8 | n=5 | n=17 | |
| Demographic data | ||||
| Gender M : F | 12 : 0 | 5 : 3 | 1 : 4 | 8 : 9 |
| Handedness R : L | 8 : 4 | 7 : 1 | 5 : 0 | 15 : 2 |
| Age | 66.1 (7.6) | 66.1 (6.9) | 62.7 (8.2) | 66.2 (8.1) |
| General cognitive functions | ||||
| MMSE (/30) | 23.5 (6.0)* | 22.8 (5.6)* | 19.2 (10.8) | 29.9 (0.3) |
| NART (/50) | 26.5 (16.1)* | 18.7 (11.9)* | 17.0 (15.3)* | 42.7 |
| RMT | ||||
| Words (/50) | 32.1 (11.5)*† | 32.6 (7.3)*† | 42.5 (4.8) | 48.2 (2.3) |
| Faces (/50) | 32.4 (5.7)* | 31.1 (8.3)* | 33.3 (7.1) | 42.4 (4.3) |
| Digit span | ||||
| Forward (/12) | 7.4 (2.6) | 7.1 (2.9) | 4.8 (2.2) | 9.0 (1.7) |
| Reverse (/12) | 5.2 (2.8) | 6.0 (2.9) | 3.5 (3.0) | 6.6 (1.7) |
| BPVS (/150) | 119.5 (42.3)*,** | 68.1 (54.6)* | 117.2 (50.8) | 148.4 (1.1) |
| GNT (/30) | 9.1 (6.7)*,** | 1.1 (2.8)* | 9.2 (12.2)* | 25.9 (3.1) |
| Arithmetic (/24) | 13.3 (7.3)† | 10.8 (9.9) | 3.0 (0.0)* | 14.6 (4.6) |
| VOSP object decision (/20) | 15.7 (3.1)* | 14.3 (4.3)* | 15.6 (3.2) | 19.4 (0.7) |
| WASI | ||||
| Vocabulary (/80) | 41.5 (22.6)* | 21.8 (20.8)* | 19.4 (19.1)* | 70.5 (4.3) |
| Block design (/71) | 19.6 (15.1)* | 31.6 (17.9) | 23.6 (20.2) | 46.2 (11.2) |
| Similarities (/48) | 19.6 (14.0)* | 10.3 (11.9)* | 12.4 (15.9)* | 39.1 (5.1) |
| Matrices (/32) | 13.0 (8.3)* | 18.8 (8.4) | 15.8 (11.2) | 24.7 (2.8) |
| Stroop ink colour naming (s) | 72.2 (19.1)* | 111.8 (44.6)* | 124.0 (48.5)* | 57.3 (9.6) |
| Stroop word naming (s) | 25.9 (10.8) | 34.9 (11.7)* | 58.4 (28.2)* | 20.4 (3.2) |
| Experimental assessments | ||||
| Flavour identification (/20) | 12.3 (4.0)* | 9.4 (2.9)* | 15.0 (3.2) | 18.1 (1.3) |
| Flavour categorisation (/20)‡ | 17.0 (2.4)* | 16.4 (1.7)* | 18.8 (0.8)* | 19.7 (0.6) |
| UPSIT (/40) | 16.6 (8.4)* | 17.5 (6.6)* | 26.2 (6.0)* | 34.7 (3.0) |
| Abnormal eating behaviour (n)§ | 6 | 5 | 2 | N/A |
| Flavour symptoms (n) | 1 | 1 | 0 | N/A |
| Odour symptoms (n) | 4 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
Mean (standard deviation) values are shown.
*Significantly worse than controls (p<0.05); **significantly different from svPPA (p<0.05); †significantly different from nfvPPA (p<0.05); ‡see text for details.
§Most patients with abnormal eating behaviour exhibited hyperphagia and pathological sweet tooth; one patient with bvFTD exhibited a preference for eating unusual items.
BPVS, British Picture Vocabulary Scale (McCarthy and Warrington, 1992); bvFTD, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia; GNT, Graded Naming Test (Warrington, 1997); MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination score (Folstein et al, 1975); NART, National Adult Reading Test (Nelson, 1982); nfvPPA, non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia; RMT, Recognition Memory Tests (Warrington, 1984); svPPA, semantic variant primary progressive aphasia; Stroop, Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Stroop test (Delis et al, 2001); UPSIT, University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (British version); VOSP, Visual Object and Space Perception Battery (Warrington and James, 1991); WASI, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1999).