Patterns of cognitive impairment across the range of dementia syndromes
| Cognitive domain | Alzheimer’s disease | Behavioural variant FTD | Semantic dementia | Progressive non-fluent aphasia | Logopenic progressive aphasia | Vascular dementia | Dementia with Lewy bodies | Progressive supranuclear palsy | Corticobasal syndrome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attention and concentration | ++ to +++ | − | − | − | + to ++ | + to ++ | + to ++ | − | − |
| Memory | |||||||||
| Encoding | +++ | Variable | − | − | Variable | + | + to ++ | − | Variable |
| Retrieval | +++ | Variable | − | − | Variable | +++ | + to ++ | − | Variable |
| Recognition | +++ | Variable | − | − | Variable | + | + to ++ | − | Variable |
| Language | |||||||||
| Speech | Fluent | Fluent | Fluent | Non-fluent | Non-fluent | Fluent | Fluent | Sparse and adynamic | Sometimes non-fluent |
| Motor speech errors | + | − | − | ++ to +++ | + to ++ | − | − | − | Variable |
| Object naming | + | − | +++ | − | + to ++ | − | − | − | Variable |
| Word knowledge | + | − | ++ to +++ | − | − | − | − | − | Variable |
| Single word repetition | − | − | − | + to ++ | + | − | − | − | Variable |
| Sentence repetition | − | − | − | − | ++ to +++ | − | − | − | Variable |
| Word production | |||||||||
| Visuospatial | |||||||||
| Visuoperception deficits | Variable | − | − | − | − | − | ++ to +++ | − | +++ |
| Visuoconstruction deficits | ++ | − | − | − | + to ++ | + | + to ++ | − | +++ |
| Executive | + to ++ | ++ to +++ | − | − | − | + to +++ | + | + | Variable |
| Social cognition | |||||||||
| Behavioural disturbances | + to ++ | ++ to +++ | ++ | − | − | + to ++ | + to ++ | − | − |
| Emotion | + | ++ to +++ | + to +++ | − | − | − | − | − | + |
| Motor symptoms/signs | − | Variable | − | − | − | + to ++ | ++ to +++ | ++ to +++ | ++ to +++ |
| Performance on MMSE | Impaired | Preserved | Impaired | Impaired | Very impaired | Impaired | Very impaired | Preserved | Variable |
FTD, frontotemporal dementia; MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination.