EEG abnormalities in dementia reflect the parietal lobe syndrome

The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent the examination of regional syndromes can improve EEG diagnostics in dementia. The study was based on 77 patients, aged between 47 and 83 years, with a dementia disease in accordance with the DSM-III-R criteria. The clinical examination was refined using a so-called stepwise clinical status analysis to estimate the occurrence and intensity of the parietal lobe syndrome, the frontal lobe syndrome, the subcortical syndrome and the less-regionalised global syndrome. In the same time period, the patients were examined electroencephalographically and the recordings were assessed both visually and by means of spectrum analysis. It was found that the intensity of the parietal lobe syndrome was correlated more strongly to the EEG slow activity as compared to the other regional syndromes. Thus, it can be expected that the EEG will be most valuable in the early-onset type of Alzheimer's disease, in which the parietal syndrome is dominant, giving information regarding the degree of dementia and suggesting a possible interference with depression. The results of the study can probably explain some discrepancies between the EEG findings and the results of clinical examination in other forms of dementia.